The number of taste buds people have on their tongue may be linked to their age and diabetes risk, according to a recent study.

Researchers found that the amount of taste buds people have on their tongue decreases with age, and that the lower the number of taste buds, the more likely "for fasting blood glucose (sugar) levels to be higher than normal," researchers said in the study.

Because high fasting blood sugar level is a main characteristic of diabetes, researchers suggest that the number of taste buds plays a role in glucose metabolism -- how the body uses sugar -- during aging.

"The reduced number of taste buds with advancing age might be linked to the increased incidence of Type 2 diabetes among older adults," Chee Chia, the study's lead investigator and a medical officer at the National Institute of Aging (NIA) in Baltimore, said in a statement

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 300 adults to learn whether they have an age-related decline in the density of taste buds.

Researchers found that the fewer taste buds the subjects had, the higher their fasting blood sugar levels were and the less they had of a beneficial fat cell hormone called adiponectin.

"To my knowledge, this is the first association found between the number of taste buds and fasting glucose," Chia said. "It's very possible they could be unrelated, so we plan to do the study over a longer time, to confirm our findings."

She said that it is also possible that "that having fewer taste buds means fewer hormones are secreted that may control glucose metabolism."

The findings were recently presented at the joint meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society: ICE/ENDO 2014 in Chicago.