Urano T, et al. – The relationship between serum osteocalcin levels and risk of incident type 2 diabetes mellitus was investigated in Japanese postmenopausal women. Findings reported a link between low serum osteocalcin levels and future development of type 2 diabetes mellitus independent of conventional risk factors among study participants.

Methods

• Researchers performed this study including 1691 Japanese postmenopausal women, 61 incident diabetes cases, and 1630 non-diabetic control subjects in the observation period.
• They assessed baseline concentrations of intact osteocalcin, HbA1c, bone-specific alkaline phosphatase, adiponectin, leptin, urinary N-telopeptides.

Results

• Serum osteocalcin levels were significantly correlated with HbA1c levels among 1691 Japanese postmenopausal women (R = -0.12, P < 0.0001).
• According to findings, in receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the optimal cut-off levels for serum osteocalcin to predict the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus was 6.1 ng/mL.
• Researchers observed that the group with baseline osteocalcin levels <6.1 ng/mL demonstrated a markedly higher risk for developing diabetes than the group with baseline osteocalcin levels >6.1 ng/mL (log-rank test, P < 0.0001) during the mean observation period (7.6 ± 6.1 years; mean ± SD).
• Data also revealed that in multiple Cox proportional hazard analysis, osteocalcin levels were significantly associated with development of type 2 diabetes mellitus during the observation period.