ArticleJournal of cellular and molecular medicine2018
Metformin's antitumour and anti-angiogenic activities are mediated by skewing macrophage polarization.
Article in Journal of cellular and molecular medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- From mechanism to therapy: advances in macrophage polarisation and targeted intervention in osteosarcoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Prognostic value of metformin in cancers: An updated meta-analysis based on 80 cohort studies.Medicine · 2022 · on this mapPooled it
- Therapeutic repurposing of old drugs to modulate the tumor immune microenvironment and enhance immunotherapy efficacy.Journal of pharmaceutical analysis · 2026Review
- Metformin and incidence of age-related macular degeneration in people with diabetes: a population-based 5-year case-control study.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Innovative horizons: harnessing drug repositioning for targeted therapeutics in colorectal cancer.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Review
- Metformin inhibits pathological retinal neovascularization but promotes retinal fibrosis in experimental neovascular age-related macular degeneration.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Metabolism of tumor infiltrating T cells.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Metformin dampens the progression of cholangiofibrosis induced by thioacetamide using deep learning.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Ground and Excited State Dipole Moments of Metformin Hydrochloride using Solvatochromic Effects and Density Functional Theory.Journal of fluorescence · 2024Article
- Respiratory complex I regulates dendritic cell maturation in explant model of human tumor immune microenvironment.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2024Article
- Metformin Alters Tumor Immune Microenvironment, Improving the Outcomes of Breast Cancer Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.Journal of breast cancer · 2024Article
- Multitarget, multiagent PLGA nanoparticles for simultaneous tumor eradication and TME remodeling in a melanoma mouse model.Drug delivery and translational research · 2024Article
- Pharmacogenomic and epigenomic approaches to untangle the enigma of IL-10 blockade in oncology.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Metformin may improve the outcome of patients with colorectal cancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus partly through effects on neutrophil extracellular traps.BJC reports · 2023Article
- Mechanisms of Regulation of the Expression of miRNAs and lncRNAs by Metformin in Ovarian Cancer.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Murine Breast Cancer Radiosensitization Using Oxygen Microbubbles and Metformin: Vessels Are the Key.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- The development and benefits of metformin in various diseases.Frontiers of medicine · 2023Review
- Review
- Is it still worth pursuing the repurposing of metformin as a cancer therapeutic?British journal of cancer · 2023Review
- Overcoming chemoresistance in non-angiogenic colorectal cancer by metformin via inhibiting endothelial apoptosis and vascular immaturity.Journal of pharmaceutical analysis · 2023Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Beneficial effects of metformin on cancer risk and mortality have been proved by epidemiological and clinical studies, thus attracting research interest in elucidating the underlying mechanisms. Recently, tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) appeared to be implicated in metformin-induced antitumour activities. However, how metformin inhibits TAMs-induced tumour progression remains ill-defined. Here, we report that metformin-induced antitumour and anti-angiogenic activities were not or only partially contributed by its direct inhibition of functions of tumour and endothelial cells. By skewing TAM polarization from M2- to M1-like phenotype, metformin inhibited both tumour growth and angiogenesis. Depletion of TAMs by clodronate liposomes eliminated M2-TAMs-induced angiogenic promotion, while also abrogating M1-TAMs-mediated anti-angiogenesis, thus promoting angiogenesis in tumours from metformin treatment mice. Further in vitro experiments using TAMs-conditioned medium and a coculture system were performed, which demonstrated an inhibitory effect of metformin on endothelial sprouting and tumour cell proliferation promoted by M2-polarized RAW264.7 macrophages. Based on these results, metformin-induced inhibition of tumour growth and angiogenesis is greatly contributed by skewing of TAMs polarization in microenvironment, thus offering therapeutic opportunities for metformin in cancer treatment.
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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.