Assessment of diabetes-induced changes of bone tissue: Experimental identification of fracture risk factors and treatment options in Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 and 2

The project “Assessment of diabetes-induced changes of bone tissue: Experimental identification of fracture risk factors and treatment options in Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 and 2” was funded by the FMTHH as a cooperation between the Department of Osteology and Biomechanics (UKE) and the Institute for Biomechanics (TUHH).

Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disease with increasing prevalence affecting several organs in the body including the bone. Patients with both types of diabetes mellitus suffer from an increased fracture risk, which is hardly detectable with common diagnosis techniques, pointing towards an impaired bone material quality.

One possible impairment of the diabetic bone quality might be induced by increased accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGE) within the bone matrix. Therefore, the aim of this project was to combine the expertise in computed tomography and fluorescence microscopy from the TUHH with the expertise in Fourier-transform infrared microscopy (FTIR) and histomorphometry at the UKE to establish and apply new analysis methods to determine AGE accumulation within the bone matrix.

Primary, bone treated with ribose was analysed with different techniques (high pressure liquid chromatography, fluorescence microscopy, FTIR, and fluorometric assay) to determine AGEs within artificially aged bone which was published by Schmidt et al. (Bone 2017). Further analysis of bone material quality analysis of human diabetic bone tissue were performed and presented at national and international conferences such as the meeting of the European Calcified Tissue Society and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.