Osteocalcin and Type 2 Diabetes Risk in Latinos: A life course approach.

Objective: To examine associations between circulating levels of the bone-derived protein osteocalcin (OC) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk in Latino children and adults. Methods: 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. Results: 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). Conclusions: OC was inversely associated with T2D risk in Latino adults; however, this pattern was not observed in children. (C) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.