Metformin can have protective effects on the heart
The widely used diabetes medicine metformin can have protective effects on the heart, reveals a new study conducted at the Sahlgrenska Academy, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy have shown in a preliminary study in rats that one of the most common diabetes drugs, metformin, also has a protective effect on the heart.
The study, carried out in collaboration with a research group from Naples and published in the journal Diabetes, reveals that metformin helps increase pumping capacity, improve energy balance, reduce the accumulation of fat, and limit the loss of heart cells through programmed cell death.
Long term effect
The results were compared with animals treated with another diabetes drug, which proved to have no positive effects on the heart.
“The animals in our study were treated with metformin for a whole year, so the effect seems to persist,” says Jörgen Isgaard, the researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy who led the Swedish research group involved in the study.
via Science Daily
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