Characterization of the bone marrow adipocyte niche with three-dimensional electron microscopy
Hero Robles, SungJae Park, Matthew S. Joens, James A.J. Fitzpatrick, Clarissa S. Craft, Erica L. Scheller
Unlike white and brown adipose tissues, the bone marrow adipocyte (BMA) exists in a microenvironment containing unique populations of hematopoietic and skeletal cells.
To study this microenvironment at the subcellular level, we performed a three-dimensional analysis of the ultrastructure of the BMA niche with focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). This revealed that BMAs display hallmarks of metabolically active cells including polarized lipid deposits, a dense mitochondrial network, and areas of endoplasmic reticulum.