ArticleNature communications2025
Metformin alters mitochondria-related metabolism and enhances human oligodendrocyte function.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mitochondria-Targeted Nanotherapeutics: A Promising Strategy in Modulating Mitochondrial Function, Transfer, and Transplantation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Mechanistic Insights into metformin's neuroprotective effects against drug-induced neurotoxicity.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Review
- Exercise mimetics: molecular mechanisms, biological and therapeutic effects.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Adjunctive Non-Disease-Modifying Therapies in Multiple Sclerosis: Immunometabolic, Neuroprotective and Remyelination-Oriented Approaches.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Charting the transition from in vitro gliogenesis to the in vivo maturation of human glial progenitor cells transplanted into the hypomyelinated mouse brain.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Dynamic collaboration between mitochondria and organelles: mechanisms, functions, and disease implications.Apoptosis : an international journal on programmed cell death · 2026Review
- Altered Erythrocyte Function via TLR9-ox-mtDNA Binding Links Mitochondrial Oxidative Damage to Systemic Inflammation in Multiple Sclerosis.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2026Article
- Metabolic Dysregulation in Laminopathies: Implications for Heart Failure and Cardiac Health.Current heart failure reports · 2026Review
- Autophagy-NLRP3 Inflammasome Crosstalk in Microglia: A Therapeutic Target for Multiple Sclerosis.Inflammation · 2026Review
- T cell-microglial interactions that impair myelin maintenance and regeneration: cellular mechanisms on white-matter associated changes.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Multiple sclerosis: 2026 update.Free neuropathology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Metformin rejuvenates adult rat oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) allowing more efficient differentiation into oligodendrocytes and improved remyelination, and therefore is of interest as a therapeutic in demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Here, we test whether metformin has a similar effect in human stem cell derived-OPCs. We assess how well human monoculture, organoid and chimera model culture systems simulate in vivo adult human oligodendrocytes, finding most close resemblance in the chimera model. Metformin increases myelin proteins and/or sheaths in all models even when human cells remain fetal-like. In the chimera model, metformin leads to increased mitochondrial area both in the human transplanted cells and in the mouse axons with associated increase of mitochondrial function/metabolism transcripts. Human oligodendrocytes from MS brain donors treated pre-mortem with metformin also express similar transcripts. Metformin's brain effect is thus not cell-specific, alters metabolism in part through mitochondrial changes and leads to more myelin production. This bodes well for clinical trials testing metformin for neuroprotection.
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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.