Associations of serum osteoprotegerin levels with diabetes, stroke, bone density, fractures, and mortality in elderly women.

Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and its ligand are cytokines that regulate osteoclastogenesis and that may be involved in the regulation of vascular calcification. We examined whether serum OPG levels were associated with stroke, mortality, and cardiovascular risk factors, including diabetes, as well as with bone mineral density and fractures in a sample of 490 participants in a prospective cohort of white women, at least 65 yr of age. We found that OPG levels, assayed blinded from serum obtained at baseline, were about 30% greater in women with diabetes (mean +/- SD, 0.30 +/- 0.17 ng/mL) than in those without diabetes (0.23 +/- 0.10 ng/mL; P = 0.0001). OPG levels were associated with all-cause mortality [age-adjusted odds ratio, 1.4/SD (0.11 ng/mL) increase in serum OPG level; 95% confidence interval, 1.2--1.8] and cardiovascular mortality (odds ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.1--1.8); these effects were not confounded by diabetes. OPG levels were not associated with baseline bone mineral density or with subsequent strokes or fractures. The association of serum OPG levels with diabetes and with cardiovascular mortality raises the possibility that OPG may be a cause of or a marker for vascular calcification.