Figure 1.

Adipose tissue is a prominent component of the mature human bone microenvironment and is accessible for study in a tissue explant model. (A) Femoral head removed during total hip replacement surgery (THR 65), with arrow pointing to cancellous bone tissue in the proximal femur. (B) Cancellous bone tissue fragments isolated from three different femoral head surgical specimens (THRs 63, 65, and 76) revealing variation in yellow versus red marrow content. (C) Histologic section of cancellous bone tissue fragment stained with hematoxylin and eosin reveals abundant adipocyte “ghosts” (red arrow) within the marrow compartment next to a mineralized bone spicule (white arrow). (D) Fluorescence image of a cancellous bone tissue spicule labeled with Osteosense 680 (red arrow) and surrounded by adipocytes (white arrow). (E) Fat micelles released into the medium of a cultured bone tissue fragment (white arrow). (F) Adipocytes isolated from bone fragment marrow growing in culture.