Osteocalcin improves glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity and secretion in older male mice.

Osteocalcin deficient mice (OC-/-), on a mixed 129/BL6J background, were reported to show glucose intolerance, insulin insensitivity and reduced insulin secretion at 1-6 mos of age. This is controversial as two studies in OC-/- mice on different backgrounds (C3H/BL6 (5-6 mos.) and C57BL/6N (5 and 9 mos.

Utilization Trends of Total Ankle Arthroplasty and Ankle Fusion for Tibiotalar Osteoarthritis: A Nationwide Analysis of the United States Population.

: Studies evaluating utilization and trends of total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) and ankle fusion (AF) are sparse. The purpose of this study was to use a nationwide administrative claims database to compare baseline demographics between TAA and ankle arthrodesis and to determine whether patients who had a TAA have increased rates of: (1) utilization, (2) in-hospital length of stay (LOS), and (3) costs of care. : PearlDiver, a nationwide claims database was queried from 2005 to December 2013 for all patients who underwent primary TAA or AF for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the ankle and foot.

Association of Opioid Use Disorder on Postoperative Outcomes Following Lumbar Laminectomy: A Nationwide Retrospective Analysis of the Medicare Population.

Background: Research focused on the association of opioid use disorder (OUD) on postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing primary lumbar laminectomy is lacking. This study aims to observe the impact of OUD on (1) hospital length of stay (LOS), (2) readmission rates, (3) medical complications, and (4) health care expenditures.

Methods: A retrospective query was performed using a nationwide claims database from January 2005 to March 2014 for all patients who underwent lumbar laminectomy, yielding a total of 131,635 patients.

An osteocalcin-deficient mouse strain without endocrine abnormalities.

Osteocalcin (OCN), the most abundant noncollagenous protein in the bone matrix, is reported to be a bone-derived endocrine hormone with wide-ranging effects on many aspects of physiology, including glucose metabolism and male fertility. Many of these observations were made using an OCN-deficient mouse allele (Osc-) in which the 2 OCN-encoding genes in mice, Bglap and Bglap2, were deleted in ES cells by homologous recombination. Here we describe mice with a new Bglap and Bglap2 double-knockout (dko) allele (Bglap/2p.