Metformin alleviates diastolic dysfunction in mice with experimental diabetic cardiomyopathy
Abstract
The first line therapy for managing type 2 diabetes (T2D), metformin, has been shown to be cardioprotective in humans and several preclinical models of cardiovascular disease. However, there has been limited interrogation into metformin's effects on diastolic function, a hallmark characteristic of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DbCM), which is becoming increasingly prevalent in people with pre- and early-stage T2D. Accordingly, we aimed to determine the effects of metformin on the pathogenesis of DbCM and hypothesized that treatment with metformin would alleviate diastolic dysfunction in mice with T2D. To induce experimental T2D and DbCM, male C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet for 12.5 weeks, in combination with a single, low-dose injection of streptozotocin (75 mg/kg) at week 4.5. The animals' drinking water was randomized to include either vehicle control or metformin (3.0 g/L) during the final 7.5 weeks. As expected, metformin treatment improved glycemia with a trend towards a reduction in adiposity in mice with T2D. Using ultrasound echocardiography, we observed that metformin improved diastolic function in mice with T2D as reflected by an increase and a decrease in the e'/a' and E/e' ratios, respectively. Furthermore, wheat-germ agglutinin staining indicated that treatment with metformin decreased cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in mice with T2D. However, mice with T2D treated with metformin did not exhibit increases in myocardial adenosine monophosphate-activated protein…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Metformin as an adjuvant in breast cancer treatment
- Metformin Lysosomal Targeting: A Novel Aspect to Be Investigated for Metformin Repurposing in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
- Aberrant HSF1 signaling activation underlies metformin amelioration of myocardial infarction in mice
- Metformin induces ZFP36 by mTORC1 inhibition in cervical cancer-derived cell lines
- Protein Interaction Network for Identifying Vascular Response of Metformin (Oral Antidiabetic)
- Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.