Research Progress of Metformin in the Treatment of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Backgroud: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease has become the second largest source of chronic liver disease in the urban population. Metformin, a traditional drug, has good prospects for treating the disease in primary health care facilities. Objective: To summarize and grasp the status of metformin in adults, children with diabetes and non-diabetic NAFLD patients. Methods: We reviewed 31 relevant research literatures in PubMed database, and sorted out some preclinical and clinical research results. Results: Metformin was found to have a good effect in improving liver function indicators in both adult diabetic and non-diabetic NAFLD patients, and could benefit liver histology in NAFLD patients with adult diabetes. Metformin treatment did not show a significant advantage over lifestyle interventions in children with NAFLD. Conclusion: Metformin can improve the liver function and histological structure of adult NAFLD patients to a certain extent, and children patients should still be treated mainly with improved lifestyle.

Chinese Herbal Medicine for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…For Coptis chinensis Franch., which has the highest frequency of occurrence, pharmacological studies have shown that berberine is the main active ingredient, which has definite effects of reducing hepatocyte lipid accumulation, anti-inflammation, and anti-fibrosis (Li et al, 2021), lowering blood glucose and improving insulin resistance (Chen Y. et al, 2021), and providing typical multi-target and multi-system pharmacological effects on T2DM with NAFLD. Berberine can regulate hepatic metabolism by protecting the intestinal mucosal epithelial barrier, thereby regulating the microenvironment of the intestinal microbiota and changing microbiota-derived metabolites such as shortchain fatty acids and secondary bile acids (Betrapally et al, 2017;Sun et al, 2017;Tian et al, 2019).…”