Osteocalcin and type 2 diabetes risk in Latinos: a life course approach

To examine associations between circulating levels of the bone-derived protein osteocalcin (OC) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk in Latino children and adults.

Serum OC was measured in 136 children and 531 adults who had the following T2D risk factors assessed, body mass index (BMI), Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting and 2-hour glucose during an oral glucose tolerance test.

OC was significantly higher in children than adults (209.0 ± 12.1 vs. 41.0 ± 0.9 ng/ml, p<0.0001). In adults, OC was inversely associated (all p<0.001) with BMI (r=-0.2), HbA1c (r=-0.2), fasting glucose (r=-0.16), and 2-hour glucose (r=-0.21), while there were no significant associations in children. There was a stepwise decrease in OC with increasing dysglycemia in adults, normoglycemic (44.1 ± 1.3 ng/ml), prediabetic (39.3 ± 1.3 ng/ml), and T2D (31.8 ± 1.2 ng/ml), (p<0.0001), whereas there were no differences between normal and prediabetic youth (195.7 ± 16.1 vs. 194.7 ± 25.8 ng/ml, p=0.3).

OC was inversely associated with T2D risk in Latino adults; however, this pattern was not observed in children.