Bone has traditionally been considered a passive organ, serving only as a scaffold for other organs and the entire body. However, over the past few years, an increasing number of studies have highlighted its function as an endocrine organ regulating energy and adipose tissue metabolism by producing undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC). In mice, ucOC administration through different routes has been explored for its potential as a therapeutic or preventive method for reducing adipocyte size and normalising glucose homeostasis. The discovery of these endocrine properties of ucOC in rodent models for obesity prevention and treatment necessitates evaluating the association of ucOC with insulin resistance and obesity-related parameters in humans. This study aimed to investigate the association between total osteocalcin and ucOC, which is proposed as the active form in rodent models, with glucose metabolism markers, insulin resistance, and obesity-related parameters (i.e. Haemoglobin A1c, fasting glucose, and insulin resistance evaluated by homeostasis model assessment) in individuals who are overweight or obese. This study concluded the possible correlation of ucOC, with insulin resistance and highlights that waist/hip ratio can be a predictor of ucOC.

Prof. Assoc. Dr. Venera Berisha-Muharremi is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and the founder of the Private Endomedica Polyclinic in Prishtina, established in 2014. She serves as a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Prishtina, Kosovo. From 2018 to 2021, she was Director of the University Endocrinology Clinic at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo. Prof. Berisha-Muharremi completed her PhD studies at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where she also undertook part of her subspecialization in Endocrinology and Diabetology, continuing at the University Clinical Center of Skopje, Macedonia. Her professional development includes training at several prestigious institutions: Oxford University (Teaching Evidence-Based Medicine), University of Perugia, Italy (Diabetology), Harvard University (Management of Obesity), and MASHAV Carmel Training Center, Israel (Health Services Management), among others. Since 2004, Prof. Berisha-Muharremi has been part of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prishtina, first as an assistant in the Department of Anatomy, later joining the Department of Internal Medicine where she has served as a professor since 2017. She is the author of numerous publications, abstracts, and papers presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.