ArticleCardiovascular diabetology2016
Metformin improves circulating endothelial cells and endothelial progenitor cells in type 1 diabetes: MERIT study.
Article in Cardiovascular diabetology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Aerobic exercise improves central blood pressure and blood pressure variability among patients with resistant hypertension: results of the EnRicH trial.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2023Trial
- The synergistic effects of saxagliptin and metformin on CD34+ endothelial progenitor cells in early type 2 diabetes patients: a randomized clinical trial.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2018Trial
- The addition of vildagliptin to metformin prevents the elevation of interleukin 1ß in patients with type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease: a prospective, randomized, open-label study.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2017 · on this mapTrial
- Autologous Cell Therapy for Chronic Limb Threatening Ischemia: Towards Personalized Medicine.Angiology · 2026Review
- The Broken Cradle: Bone Marrow Stem Cell Niche Remodelling in Diabetes.Stem cell reviews and reports · 2026Review
- Circulating angiogenic progenitor cell apoptosis in Post-COVID-19 syndrome.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2026Article
- Beyond HbAFrontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- Article
- Adjuvant Treatment with Empagliflozin or Semaglutide Increases Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Subjects with Well-Controlled Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Article
- Activation of the LKB1/AMPK/HIF-1α Pathway by Metformin to Promote Neovascularisation in Cerebral Ischaemia.Neurochemical research · 2024Article
- The effect of empagliflozin on circulating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2024Article
- Overexpression of miR-199b-5p in Colony Forming Unit-Hill's Colonies Positively Mediates the Inflammatory Response in Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease Model: Metformin Therapy Attenuates Its Expression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Review
- Endothelial progenitor cells as biomarkers of diabetes-related cardiovascular complications.Stem cell research & therapy · 2023Review
- Decoding of miR-7-5p in Colony Forming Unit-Hill Colonies as a Biomarker of Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease-A MERIT Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Maximal Exercise Improves the Levels of Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Heart Failure Patients.Current issues in molecular biology · 2023Article
- Repurposing Metformin for Vascular Disease.Current medicinal chemistry · 2023Review
- Deciphering the Role of miR-200c-3p in Type 1 Diabetes (Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease) and Its Correlation with Inflammation and Vascular Health.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Upregulated miR-18a-5p in Colony Forming Unit-Hill's in Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease and Metformin Therapy; MERIT Study.Biomedicines · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundType 1 diabetes is associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD). Decreased endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) number plays a pivotal role in reduced endothelial repair and development of CVD. We aimed to determine if cardioprotective effect of metformin is mediated by increasing circulating endothelial progenitor cells (cEPCs), pro-angiogenic cells (PACs) and decreasing circulating endothelial cells (cECs) count whilst maintaining unchanged glycemic control.
methodsThis study was an open label and parallel standard treatment study. Twenty-three type 1 diabetes patients without overt CVD were treated with metformin for 8 weeks (treatment group-TG). They were matched with nine type 1 diabetes patients on standard treatment (SG) and 23 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers (HC). Insulin dose was adjusted to keep unchanged glycaemic control. cEPCs and cECs counts were determined by flow cytometry using surface markers CD45(dim)CD34(+)VEGFR-2(+) and CD45(dim)CD133(-)CD34(+)CD144(+) respectively. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were cultured to assess changes in PACs number, function and colony forming units (CFU-Hill's colonies).
resultsAt baseline TG had lower cEPCs, PACs, CFU-Hills' colonies and PACs adhesion versus HC (p < 0.001-all variables) and higher cECs versus HC (p = 0.03). Metformin improved cEPCs, PACs, CFU-Hill's colonies number, cECs and PACs adhesion (p < 0.05-all variables) to levels seen in HC whilst HbA1c (one-way ANOVA p = 0.78) and glucose variability (average glucose, blood glucose standard deviation, mean amplitude of glycaemic excursion, continuous overall net glycaemic action and area under curve) remained unchanged. No changes were seen in any variables in SG. There was an inverse correlation between CFU-Hill's colonies with cECs.
conclusionsMetformin has potential cardio-protective effect through improving cEPCs, CFU-Hill's colonies, cECs, PACs count and function independently of hypoglycaemic effect. This finding needs to be confirmed by long term cardiovascular outcome studies in type 1 diabetes. Trial registration ISRCTN26092132.
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