The efficacy of saxagliptin in T2DM patients with non-alccholic fatty liver disease: preliminary data

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical efficacy and the possible mechanisms of saxagliptin in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) combined with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). METHODS: A total of 95 T2DM and NAFLD patients were randomly divided into group A (saxagliptin group), group B (glimepiride group), and group C (glimepiride combined with polyene phosphatidylcholine group). RESULTS: After intervention treatment for 24 w, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), glycated haemoglobin (HbAlc), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), fasting insulin (FINS), homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), interleukin-6 (IL-6), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), y-glutamyltransferase (gamma-GT), and quantitative detection of liver steatosis of study subjects were observed, the action of liver steatosis in subjects of groups A and C were significantly different from those of group B; however, there were no differences between groups A and C. The FINS, HOMA-IR, and IL-6 of subjects in group A was lower than those in groups B and C; however, there were no significant differences between the latter two groups. CONCLUSION: For T2DM combined with NAFLD patients, the saxagliptin treatment could not only effectively control blood glucose but also attenuate insulin resistance and inflammatory injury of the liver to improve fatty liver further.