Carlos Urrego

As of 2019, Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) had already affected 463 million people worldwide, and this number is projected to rise to a staggering 700 million by 2045. Within the United States alone, 11.3% of the population, roughly 37.3 million individuals, were diagnosed with diabetes in 2019. A significant portion of these cases (90-95%) is attributed to Type 2 Diabetes. What's alarming is that T2D has been shown to negatively impact bone quality, increasing the risk of fractures by up to 82% and mortality by up to 57% after hip fractures compared to non-diabetic patients. This risk is particularly pronounced among female subjects.
We are currently investigating spatial bone quality changes induced by T2D. Previous studies have often focused on a single location of bone, missing potential variations in architecture, mechanics, and composition that may hold the key to understanding skeletal fragility. Additionally, we aim to study changes on osteocytes activity (senescence) and connectivity to determine its role in the contribution to fragile skeleton phenotype with T2D.