Word: osteocalcin
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...inert, calcified structures, but they are, in fact, active tissues that constantly renew themselves. Cells called osteoblasts continually build new bone, while osteoclasts destroy old bone. What the new research shows is that the bones also act as a kind of endocrine organ. They release a hormone called osteocalcin that not only acts locally to influence bone formation, but also increases the production of insulin in the pancreas, raises the body's sensitivity to insulin and reduces stores...
...suspected just how powerful a role the bones play in so fundamental an activity as regulating sugar. Over a period of three years, Karsenty's team conducted a series of experiments with eight strains of mice, including some genetically altered to lack osteocalcin and some engineered to overeat. He found that osteocalcin significantly impacts how the body handles glucose, its primary fuel, in three ways: by raising the number of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, by directly boosting the output of those cells, and by raising the body's sensitivity to insulin...
...beta cells, says Karsenty, "is a holy grail for diabetes research. If what's true for mice proves true for humans, "then we have inside us a hormone that does precisely this." In mice that are programmed to overeat and mice that are fed fatty diets, high levels of osteocalcin prevented both obesity and diabetes. Karsenty is now examining whether giving diabetic mice osteocalcin will reverse the disease...
Exactly what this means for people remains to be seen. Researchers have known that people with diabetes tend to have low levels of osteocalcin, but until now no one understood the significance. "This will open up a lot of new avenues for investigation," says Kahn...
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