AGER and diabetes mellitus: In this study, we analyzed PBMC isolated from 40 diabetic participants with metformin-monotherapy and 27 non-diabetic participants showing osteogenic differentiation (NDM-pD) to explore whether there was: 1) cellular RAGE overexpression in early-stage diabetes, 2) an association between RAGE overexpression with cellular apoptotic signal enhancement and osteogenic differentiation impairment, and 3) factors influencing cellular RAGE overexpression.