Bone Hormone Could Help Treat Diabetes

A substance produced by the skeleton may help to treat diabetes, a new study suggests. A hormone called osteocalcin regulates blood sugar; type 2 diabetics have a lower level of the hormone than other people. In the study, mice with lower levels of osteocalcin develop symptoms of diabetes, which go away when they are injected with the hormone.

Scientists caution that more work needs to be done to see how osteocalcin interacts with other hormones. However, the substance is known to be tolerated well by humans, and seems to target a wide array of symptoms. "One could hope and certainly we will test if it could be a treatment for type 2 diabetes," says one of the study's authors. (More diabetes stories.)