Ali Hasanpour Dehkordi
1, Abolfazl Abbaszadeh
2, Samareh Mir
3, Amin Hasanvand
4*1 Department of Medical-Surgical, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran
2 Department of Surgery, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
3 Department of Pharmacotherapy, Faculty of pharmacy, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran.
4 Nutritional Health Research Center, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
Abstract
Metformin is one of the oldest and commonly used blood sugar lowering drugs, having limited
side effects and used as the first line treatment in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus.
Moreover, various studies have emphasized on the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant role
of metformin, with multiple mechanisms, which activation of AMPK by metformin has
had a key role in many of them. During the searches on the internet websites of PubMed,
Elsevier, Google Scholar, and Science Direct, 76 papers related to the anti-inflammatory and
antioxidant role of metformin were selected and reviewed since 2003 to 2017. At the cellular
level, metformin suppresses the inflammation in many cases and reduces or eliminates
inflammatory factors mainly through dependent mechanisms and sometimes independent of
AMPK at the cellular level and through other ways at the systematic levels. It is also effective
in reducing the level of oxidative stress factors by regulating the antioxidant system of the cell.
All evidence suggests the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory role of metformin in various
conditions. Metformin can be an appropriate treatment option for many diseases, which
inflammatory processes and oxidative stress play a role in their pathogenesis.
Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education:
Metformin, with the chemical name of 1,1-dimethylbiguanide hydrochloride, is in the first line of treatment of patients with type
2 diabetes. Metformin treatment reduced inflammatory markers such as IL-1β, iNOS, and TNF-α, and reduced the number of
microglia cells, and accordingly, it inhibited the inflammatory response. It was indicated that metformin reduced levels of ROS
and NO and increased the antioxidant system, such as SOD.
Please cite this paper as: Hasanpour Dehkordi A, Abbaszadeh A, Mir S, Hasanvand A. Metformin and its anti-inflammatory
and anti-oxidative effects; new concepts. J Renal Inj Prev. 2019;8(1):54-61. DOI: 10.15171/jrip.2019.11.