ArticleAmerican journal of translational research2017
Metformin inhibits development of diabetic retinopathy through microRNA-497a-5p.
Article in American journal of translational research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular stress and neurovascular injury in the diabetic retina.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Management of diabetic macular edema: from anti-VEGF to emerging therapies.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Molecular Mechanism of Metformin Regulating the Regeneration of PlanarianInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Review
- Exploring the Protective Effects of Traditional Antidiabetic Medications and Novel Antihyperglycemic Agents in Diabetic Rodent Models.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Therapeutic Effects of Metformin on Central Nervous System Diseases: A Focus on Protection of Neurovascular Unit.Pharmaceutical research · 2024Review
- Article
- Current Treatments for Diabetic Macular Edema.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Circ-Bnc2 alleviates neuroinflammation in LPS-stimulated microglial cells to inhibit neuron cell apoptosis through regulating miR-497a-5p/HECTD1 axis.Brain and behavior · 2023Article
- Association of metformin treatment with enhanced effect of anti-VEGF agents in diabetic macular edema patients.Acta diabetologica · 2022Article
- Metformin and retinal diseases in preclinical and clinical studies: Insights and review of literature.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2022Review
- Therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cells-derived extracellular vesicles' miRNAs on retinal regeneration: a review.Stem cell research & therapy · 2021Review
- Article
- Metformin attenuated histopathological ocular deteriorations in a streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemic rat model.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2021Article
- The Safety of Pharmacological and Surgical Treatment of Diabetes in Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy-A Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Metformin is an AMP-activated protein kinase activator that is widely prescribed for treating type 2 diabetes. Recently, metformin was reported to slow down the development and alleviate the severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR). However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we used an alloxan-induced diabetes mouse model to study the effects of metformin on the development of DR as well as the mechanisms. We found that DR was induced in alloxan-treated mice 10 weeks after alloxan treatment, and treatment of metformin did not prevent the occurrence of alloxan-induced diabetes. However, metformin significantly alleviated the severity of DR, seemingly through attenuating the retina neovascularization. Moreover, the total vascular endothelial cell growth factor A (VEGF-A) mRNA in mouse eyes was not altered by metformin, but the protein levels was decreased. Further analysis showed that metformin may inhibit the VEGF-A protein translation through inducing a VEGF-A-targeting microRNA, microRNA-497a-5p, resulting in reduced retina neovascularization. Thus, our study suggests a previously unappreciated role of metformin in the prevention of development of DR.
Indexed as
Identifiers
29312507PMC5752905W2922071061What OpenQuestion holds
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.