A new study indicates that your body’s skeleton is actually an endocrine organ and that it plays an important part in the body's hormonal system. They found that cells located in bones actually produce a hormone that affects blood sugar levels and fat deposits. One expert in skeletal development, Gerard Karsenty, indicated that the skeleton acts as a rheostat, regulating endocrinology metabolism.

Previous studies by Karsenty and his colleagues had shown that bone metabolism was influenced by fat cells. They understood that leptin, a hormone released by fat cells, influenced bone formation, so they hypothesized that the bone might be involved in metabolism.

Their premise, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, so if fat cells were influencing bone, bone should be influencing fat. The team searched for molecules in bone-producing osteoblast cells that might be communicating between bone forming cells and the endocrine system.

The research team discovered that a hormone called osteocalcin that is released in bone forming cells known as osteoblasts, also regulates blood sugar and the deposition of fat. They were able to show that increasing osteocalcin effectively prevents the development of type 2 diabetes and obesity in the laboratory mice. Osteocalcin was previously thought to only be involved in bone development, however it increases the secretion of insulin and the sensitivity to insulin. This is an unusual reaction because increases in insulin secretion are usually accompanied by a decrease in the sensitivity to insulin. It also boosts production of pancreatic beta cells that make insulin and reduce fat deposits by interacting with fat cells.

Researchers are excited about this finding because it could lead to a promising treatment for those with type-2 diabetes. Since the study involved laboratory mice, their next step is to look at the link between osteocalcin, blood sugar, type 2 diabetes, and obesity in humans.

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