ArticleMolecular neurobiology2017
Metformin Improves Functional Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury via Autophagy Flux Stimulation.
Article in Molecular neurobiology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 83 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
83 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 137 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metformin's therapeutic potential in spinal cord injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis on locomotor recovery, neuropathic pain alleviation, and modulation of secondary injury mechanisms.Acta neurochirurgica · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of metformin on ameliorating neurological function deficits and tissue damage in rats following spinal cord injury: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Effect of Metformin on Locomotor Function Recovery in Rat Spinal Cord Injury Model: A Meta-analysis.Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2021Pooled it
- The role of autophagy in spinal cord injury: Mechanisms, crosstalk, and therapeutic strategies.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- Role of COL1A1 and CD44 in Modulating JAK1/STAT3-Mediated Autophagy for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery.The Kaohsiung journal of medical sciences · 2026Article
- Roles and regulatory mechanisms of autophagy in the pathology of spinal cord injury.Burns & trauma · 2026Review
- Metformin promotes PEN2 expression to attenuate microglia-mediated neurotoxicity induced by HIV-1 Tat.Journal of neurovirology · 2025Article
- Dermal white adipose tissue: A new modulator in wound healing and regeneration.Regenerative therapy · 2025Review
- The Application of Exosomes From Different Sources Loaded with Natural Small-Molecule Compounds in Disease.International journal of nanomedicine · 2025Review
- Review
- Impact of commonly administered drugs on the progression of spinal cord injury: a systematic review.Communications medicine · 2024Article
- A Mechanism of Action of Metformin in the Brain: Prevention of Methylglyoxal-Induced Glutamatergic Impairment in Acute Hippocampal Slices.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Article
- Advances in application of hypoxia-preconditioned mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Heterophyllin B enhances transcription factor EB-mediated autophagy and alleviates pyroptosis and oxidative stress after spinal cord injury.International journal of biological sciences · 2024Article
- Drug Repurposing for Spinal Cord Injury: Progress Towards Therapeutic Intervention for Primary Factors and Secondary Complications.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2023Review
- Elamipretide reduces pyroptosis and improves functional recovery after spinal cord injury.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2023Article
- Neuroprotective Effects of Oxymatrine via Triggering Autophagy and Inhibiting Apoptosis Following Spinal Cord Injury in Rats.Molecular neurobiology · 2023Article
- Metformin promotes angiogenesis and functional recovery in aged mice after spinal cord injury by adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase/endothelial nitric oxide synthase pathway.Neural regeneration research · 2023Article
- Metformin Improves Functional Outcomes, Activates Neural Precursor Cells, and Modulates Microglia in a Sex-Dependent Manner After Spinal Cord Injury.Stem cells translational medicine · 2023Article
- Different Ways to Die: Cell Death Pathways and Their Association With Spinal Cord Injury.Neurospine · 2023Article
23 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe neurological disease with few efficacious drugs. Autophagy is a cellular process to confront with stress after SCI and considered to be a therapeutic target of SCI. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effect of metformin on functional recovery after SCI and its underlying mechanism of autophagy regulation. Using a rat model of traumatic SCI, we found improved function recovery which was paralleled by a reduction of apoptosis after metformin treatment. We further examined autophagy via detecting autophagosomes by transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence, as well as autophagy markers by western blot in each groups. The results showed that the number of autophagosomes and expression of autophagy markers such as LC3 and beclin1 were increased in SCI group, while autophagy substrate protein p62 as well as ubiquitinated proteins were found to accumulate in SCI group, indicating an impaired autophagy flux in SCI. But, metformin treatment attenuated the accumulation of p62 and ubiquitinated proteins, suggesting a stimulative effect of autophagy flux by metformin. Blockage of autophagy flux by chloroquine partially abolished the apoptosis inhibition and functional recovery effect of metformin on SCI, which suggested that the protective effect of metformin on SCI was through autophagy flux stimulation. Activation of AMPK as well as inhibition of its downstream mTOR signaling were detected under metformin treatment in vivo and in vitro; inhibition of AMPK signaling by compound C suppressed autophagy flux induced by metformin in vitro, indicating that AMPK signaling was involved in the effect of metformin on autophagy flux regulation. Together, these results illustrated that metformin improved functional recovery effect through autophagy flux stimulation and implied metformin to be a potential drug for SCI therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.