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An Overview of the Metabolic Functions of Osteocalcin

  • Bone and Diabetes (AV Schwartz and P Vestergaard, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

A recent unexpected development of bone biology is that bone is an endocrine organ regulating a growing number of physiological processes. One of the functions regulated by bone through the hormone osteocalcin is glucose homeostasis. In this overview, we will explain why we hypothesized that bone mass and energy metabolism should be subjected to a coordinated endocrine regulation. We will then review the experiments that revealed the endocrine function of osteocalcin and the cell biology events that allow osteocalcin to become a hormone. We will also illustrate the importance of this regulation to understand whole-body glucose homeostasis in the physiological state and in pathological conditions. Lastly, we will mention epidemiological and genetic evidence demonstrating that this function of osteocalcin is conserved in humans.

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Conflict of Interest

J Wei and G Karsenty both declare no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All studies by the authors involving animal and/or human subjects were performed after approval by the appropriate institutional review boards. When required, written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics & Development, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 701W 168th Street, Room 1602A HHSC, New York, New York, 10032, USA

    Jianwen Wei & Gerard Karsenty

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  1. Jianwen Wei
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  2. Gerard Karsenty
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Correspondence to Gerard Karsenty.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Bone and Diabetes

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Wei, J., Karsenty, G. An Overview of the Metabolic Functions of Osteocalcin. Curr Osteoporos Rep 13, 180–185 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-015-0267-y

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