Circulating sclerostin is increased in T2DM independently of gender and age. Serum sclerostin is also correlated with duration of T2DM, glycated hemoglobin, bone turnover markers, and BMD in T2DM patients. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the role of sclerostin on bone metabolism in this population.

OBJECTIVEWnt/β-catenin signaling is related to the pathogenesis of several diseases. Sclerostin is an inhibitor of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. However, there are few data regarding the sclerostin levels and vascular disease. Our aim was to examine the relationship between serum sclerostin and atherosclerotic disease (AD) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSWe performed a cross-sectional study including 78 T2DM patients (45.3% females, mean age 59 ± 5.7 years; 54.7% males, 57.4 ± 6.7 years).RESULTSSerum sclerostin concentrations of T2DM patients in the AD group were significantly higher than in the non-AD group (P = 0.006). For each increase of 1 pmol/L in sclerostin level, there was a 4% increase of the risk of AD in T2DM patients. A concentration of ≥42.3 pmol/L showed a sensitivity of 69% and a specificity of 54.8% to detect an increased risk of AD. In males, sclerostin levels were higher in those with AD (P = 0.04), abnormal intima-media thickness (IMT) (P = 0.004), carotid plaques (P < 0.001), and aortic calcification (P < 0.001). In females, higher levels of sclerostin were related to abnormal IMT (P = 0.03) and aortic calcifications (P = 0.004). Homocysteine (β = 0.319 [95% CI 0.561–2.586], P = 0.003) and IMT (β = 0.330 [14.237–67.693], P = 0.003) were positively correlated with sclerostin.CONCLUSIONSCirculating sclerostin is increased in T2DM patients with atherosclerotic lesions. Although the sample size of our study was small, these data suggest that sclerostin levels could be a major modulator of Wnt signaling in AD with implications in T2DM patients.

A major consequence of the world industrialized lifestyle is the increasing period of unnatural light in environments during the day and artificial lighting at night. This major change disrupts endogenous homeostasis with external circadian cues, which has been associated to higher risk of diseases affecting human health, mainly cancer among others. Circadian disruption promotes tumor development and accelerate its fast progression. The dysregulation mechanisms of circadian genes is greatly affected by the genetic variability of these genes. To date, several core circadian genes, also called circadian clock genes, have been identified, comprising the following: ARNTL, CLOCK, CRY1, CRY2, CSNK1E, NPAS2, NR1D1, NR1D2, PER1, PER2, PER3, RORA , and TIMELESS . The polymorphic variants of these circadian genes might contribute to an individual's risk to cancer. In this short review, we focused on clock circadian clock-related genes, major contributors of the susceptibility to endocrine-dependent cancers through affecting circadian clock, most likely affecting hormonal regulation. We examined polymorphisms affecting breast, prostate and ovarian carcinogenesis, in addition to pancreatic and thyroid cancer. Further study of the genetic composition in circadian clock-controlled tumors will be of great importance by establishing the foundation to discover novel genetic biomarkers for cancer prevention, prognosis and target therapies.

Cardiovascular diseases are a health problem throughout the world, especially in people with diabetes. The identification of cardiovascular disease biomarkers can improve risk stratification. Sclerostin is a modulator of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway in different tissues, and it has recently been linked to vascular biology. The current study aimed to evaluate the relationship between circulating sclerostin levels and cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular mortality in individuals with and without type 2 diabetes. We followed up a cohort of 130 participants (mean age 56.8 years; 48.5% females; 75 with type 2 diabetes; 46 with prevalent cardiovascular disease) in which serum sclerostin levels were measured at the baseline. Time to death (both of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular causes) was assessed to establish the relationship between sclerostin and mortality. We found that serum sclerostin concentrations were significantly higher in patients with prevalent cardiovascular disease (p<0.001), and independently associated with cardiovascular mortality (p = 0.008), showing sclerostin to be a stronger predictor of mortality than other classical risk factors (area under the curve = 0.849 vs 0.823). The survival analysis showed that an increase of 10 pmol/L in the serum sclerostin level resulted in a 31% increase in cardiovascular mortality. However, no significant association was observed between sclerostin levels and non-cardiovascular mortality (p = 0.346).From these results, we conclude that high sclerostin levels are related to mortality due to cardiovascular causes. The clinical implication of these findings is based on the possible use of serum sclerostin as a new biomarker of cardiovascular mortality risk in order to establish preventive strategies.

Circulating sclerostin levels are significantly increased in patients with PC and particularly in those receiving ADT. The inverse relationship between serum sclerostin and testosterone in these patients suggests that androgens are key regulators of bone metabolism in this population.

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Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide due to its symptoms, early metastasis, and chemoresistance. Thus, the mechanisms contributing to pancreatic cancer progression require further exploration. Circadian rhythms are the daily oscillations of multiple biological processes regulated by an endogenous clock. Several evidences suggest that the circadian clock may play an important role in the cell cycle, cell proliferation and apoptosis. In addition, timing of chemotherapy or radiation treatment can influence the efficacy and toxicity treatment. Here, we revisit the studies on circadian clock as an emerging target for therapy in pancreatic cancer. We highlight those potential circadian genes regulators that are commonly affected in pancreatic cancer according to most recent reports.

The relationship between fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 23 and vascular disease is well established in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Regarding serum FGF23 and bone fragility, there is contradictory data. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease and fractures despite high bone mineral density (BMD), so the evaluation of FGF23 and its relationship with bone and cardiovascular disease in T2D is of interest. Our hypothesis was that serum FGF23 may be related to cardiovascular disease and bone metabolism (BMD, osteoporosis, and fractures) in T2D.We performed a cross-sectional study including 68 T2D subjects and 45 subjects without diabetes. We analyzed the relationship between circulating FGF23, bone metabolism, cardiovascular events, and intima-media thickness (IMT).There were no differences in FGF23 according to group. In the entire cohort, subjects with prevalent fracture and osteoporosis had lower FGF23 (20.9 6 8.3 vs. 51.4 6 38.9 pg/mL and 29.5 6 15.6 vs. 52.4 6 40.6 pg/mL, P , 0.05). In T2D, serum FGF23 was related to serum phosphorus (r 5 0.484), lumbar spine T-score (r 5 0.300), and femoral neck T-score (r 5 0.252) and was inversely related to age (r 5 20.496) (P , 0.05 for all). Differences according to osteoporosis, abnormal IMT, and diabetic nephropathy are shown in Fig. 1. In T2D, after linear regression analysis the main determinants of serum FGF23 were age Our results showed a stronger correlation between FGF23 and BMD than previously found in elderly nondiabetic males (1,2). Serum FGF23 may reflect the osteocyte number, and T2D subjects have higher BMD. On the other hand, a different relationship between FGF23 and parathyroid hormone in diabetes has been reported apart from the presence of CKD (3), which may indicate a differentiated regulation and possibly different effects of FGF23 on bone metabolism in T2D compared with nondiabetic populations.In our study, subjects with previous fractures have lower FGF23 concentrations, but no differences in T2D were found. Circulating FGF23 has been linked to fracture risk (4), although in another study FGF23 and hip fracture risk was not related (2). We consider that the relationship between FGF23 and fracture risk is not established.T2D patients with abnormal IMT had lower FGF23, and abnormal IMT remained associated with FGF23 after linear regression analysis. However, FGF23 and established cardiovascular disease or aortic calcification was not related. Our findings may indicate a role in the development of atherosclerosis in T2D. Supporting the association between FGF23 and preclinical vascular disease, higher FGF23, even within the normal range, is independently associated with impaired vasoreactivity and increased arterial stiffness in the general population (5).In summary, serum FGF23 is related to BMD and preclinical vascular disease in T2D patients. Our study suggests that effects of FGF23 in T2D may differ from other populations, although it must be confirmed in larger studies.