ArticleCommunications medicine2023
Higher mitochondrial DNA copy number is associated with metformin-induced weight loss.
Article in Communications medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular Mechanisms of Obesity-Associated Oxidative Stress and Therapeutic Strategies.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial Dysfunction Associated with mtDNA in Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 10 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundConsiderable variability exists in response to metformin with few effective biomarkers to guide the treatment. Here we evaluated whether whole blood derived mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) is a biomarker of metformin response as measured by glucose reduction or weight loss.
methodsUsing data from the trial of Metformin (n = 304) and AcaRbose (n = 300) in Chinese as the initial Hypoglycaemic treatment (MARCH), we examined the association between mtDNA-CN and two metformin response outcomes of HbA1c reduction and weight loss. The acarbose arm was used as a comparator group. Whole blood mtDNA-CN was estimated by deep whole genome sequencing with adjustments for confounders. Multiple linear regression and repeated measurement analyses were used to evaluate the association between mtDNA-CN and drug response outcomes.
resultsHere we show that glucose reduction is not significantly associated with mtDNA-CN and in either treatment arm. In the metformin arm, each increase of 1 SD in mtDNA-CN is significantly (P = 0.006) associated with a 0.43 kg more weight loss. Repeated measurement analysis shows that after 16 weeks of metformin monotherapy, patients in the top tertile of mtDNA-CN consistently lost 1.21 kg more weight than those in the bottom tertile (P < 0.001). In comparison, mtDNA-CN is not significantly associated with acarbose-induced weight loss.
conclusionsPatients with higher mtDNA-CN are likely to lose more weight upon metformin treatment, suggesting mtDNA-CN as a potential novel biomarker for more effective weight management in type 2 diabetes.
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Registered trials
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