Bones 'may contribute to diabetes'

BONES play an important role in regulating blood sugar and may contribute to diabetes, research has shown.

The discovery could lead to more targeted drugs for treating the most common form of the disease.

It also has implications for people with the brittle bone disorder, osteoporosis.

A common drug treatment for the condition could make a person more likely to develop diabetes, the findings reported in the journal Cell suggest.

During normal growth, a process called resorption destroys old bone so it can be replaced by new tissue.

A team of US-led scientists found that resorption - which is blocked by some osteoporosis drugs - is necessary to maintain healthy sugar levels in the blood.

The process stimulates the release of insulin into the bloodstream, which in turn improves glucose use by cells.

Previously, the same scientists showed that a hormone released by bone called osteocalcin switches on insulin production and increases the cellular uptake of glucose.

Both mechanisms are impaired in people with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease that affects more than two million men and women in the UK.

The new research shows that osteocalcin cannot work without resorption.

As bone is degraded, inactive osteocalcin is converted to its active form by an increase in acidity.

Study leader Dr Gerard Karsenty, from the University of Columbia in New York, said: "This research has important implications for both diabetes and osteoporosis patients.

"First, this research shows that osteocalcin is involved in diabetes onset; secondly, bone may become a new target in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, the most frequent form of diabetes, as it appears to contribute strongly to glucose intolerance; and, finally, osteocalcin could become a treatment for type 2 diabetes.

"And for osteoporosis patients, the concern is that a common treatment, bisphosphonates, which work by inhibiting bone resorption and therefore may increase glucose intolerance, could push someone with borderline glucose intolerance into full-fledged disease onset."