Metformin: An Old Dog with a New Trick?

Claudia C Dos Santos; Bharat Gopal; Subodh Verma

doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2018.08.018

Metformin: An Old Dog with a New Trick?

Cell Metab. 2018 Sep 4;28(3):334-336. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.08.018.

Authors

Claudia C Dos Santos¹, Bharat Gopal², Subodh Verma³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Respirology and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
² Department of Respiratory Medicine, Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, New Delhi, India.
³ Division of Respirology and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Division of Cardiac Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 30184483
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.08.018

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remains an important medical challenge, but recent translational data have provided clues implicating deficient AMPK signaling in persistently activated myelofibroblasts within fibrotic foci. A new study in Nature Medicine reports that pharmacological activation of AMPK with metformin can reverse established fibrosis by facilitating deactivation and apoptosis of myofibroblasts.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Bleomycin
Humans
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis*
Metformin*
Myofibroblasts
Signal Transduction

Substances

Bleomycin
Metformin