Significant inverse association between serum osteocalcin and incident type 2 diabetes in a middle-aged cohort

Abstract

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that osteocalcin links bone formation to glucose homeostasis. However, the correlation between osteocalcin and incident type 2 diabetes has been controversial based on the limited results of cohort studies. We examined the link between serum osteocalcin and glucose homeostasis including incident type 2 diabetes in a 3-year follow-up study. Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 1870 middle-aged subjects (1279 men, 591 women) at Chinese PLA General Hospital who were followed-up for 3 years. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to determine whether incident type 2 diabetes was influenced by the osteocalcin concentrations measured with an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Results: At baseline, the blood glucose levels and prevalence of metabolic syndrome varied inversely with the osteocalcin quartiles. During follow-up, type 2 diabetes developed in 80 of the 1870 subjects. The prevalence decreased with osteocalcin quartiles (P = 0.016). In models adjusted for metabolism-related parameters, osteocalcin was inversely associated with fasting plasma glucose {β = −0.017 [95% confidence interval (CI), −0.034–0.00], P = 0.040}. Osteocalcin was inversely related to the risk of incident type 2 diabetes assessed using a model adjusted for glucose metabolic parameters, 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 and parathyroid hormone (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.09 [95% CI, 0.01–0.96], P = 0.046). The onset risk of diabetes in the first osteocalcin quartile was higher than in the fourth quartile (HR = 1.67 [95% CI, 0.96–3.48], P = 0.035). The correlation was strongly significant after fully adjusting for glucose related parameters and bone turnover (HR = 3.02 [95% CI, 1.25–7.32], P = 0.014). Conclusions: Low serum osteocalcin concentrations at baseline were independently related to an increased risk of incident type 2 diabetes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.