Ahsan MU, Iftikhar S, Ambreen UE, Nazir F, Fawad M, Nasir K, Leghari UR. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors beyond glycemic control: Their role in acute kidney injury recovery. World J Nephrol 2025; 14(4): 112302 [PMID: 41479818 DOI: 10.5527/wjn.v14.i4.112302]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Muhammad Umar Ahsan, Researcher, Department of Medicine, D.G.Khan Medical College, College Chowk, Dera Ghazi Khan 32200, Punjab, Pakistan. umarahsan219@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Urology & Nephrology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Nephrol. Dec 25, 2025; 14(4): 112302 Published online Dec 25, 2025. doi: 10.5527/wjn.v14.i4.112302
Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors beyond glycemic control: Their role in acute kidney injury recovery
Ume Roman Leghari, Khadija Nasir, Matia Fawad, Fahad Nazir, Umme E Ambreen, Sana Iftikhar, Muhammad Umar Ahsan
Muhammad Umar Ahsan, Khadija Nasir, Ume Roman Leghari, Department of Medicine, D.G.Khan Medical College, Dera Ghazi Khan 32200, Punjab, Pakistan
Sana Iftikhar, Department of Medicine, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical and Dental College, Lahore 05450, Punjab, Pakistan
Umme E Ambreen, Fahad Nazir, Department of Medicine, CMH Institute of Medical Sciences, Bahawalpur 63100, Punjab, Pakistan
Matia Fawad, Department of Medicine, People’s University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Nawabshah 67450, Pakistan
Co-first authors: Muhammad Umar Ahsan and Sana Iftikhar.
Author contributions: Ahsan MU, Iftikhar S, and Nasir K contributed to writing original manuscript; Ahsan MU, Iftikhar S, Nazir F, Memon MF contributed to manuscript review and editing; Ahsan MU contributed to conceptualization, investigations, supervision; Ambreen U contributed to writing original draft, editing; Nazir F and Memon MF contributed to investigations, writing original draft; Nasir K contributed to editing; Leghari UR contributed to review, editing of the original manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Corresponding author: Muhammad Umar Ahsan, Researcher, Department of Medicine, D.G.Khan Medical College, College Chowk, Dera Ghazi Khan 32200, Punjab, Pakistan. umarahsan219@gmail.com
Received: July 23, 2025 Revised: August 15, 2025 Accepted: December 8, 2025 Published online: December 25, 2025 Processing time: 153 Days and 18.7 Hours
Abstract
With notable Reno protective advantages beyond glycemic management, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have become a mainstay treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Although SGLT2 inhibitors' involvement in the course of CKD has been well investigated, new research indicates that they may also have protective benefits in acute kidney injury (AKI), a condition for which there are few pharmacological treatments. The possible ways that SGLT2 inhibitors aid in AKI recovery are examined in this mini-review. These include mitochondrial protection, oxidative stress attenuation, anti-inflammatory effects, intraglomerular pressure decrease, and modulation of tubuloglomerular feedback. Although there is a lack of solid clinical trial data, preclinical models and observational studies suggest that SGLT2 inhibitors may lessen ischemia-reperfusion injury and contrast-induced nephropathy. This review addresses the possibility of incorporating SGLT2 inhibitors into AKI care regimens, critically evaluates the available data, and highlights important research gaps. Robust clinical trials are required to determine the safety, effectiveness, and ideal treatment window of SGLT2 inhibitors in this context, given the burden of AKI-related morbidity and mortality.
Core Tip: Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, traditionally used for glycemic control in type 2 diabetes, show emerging promise in acute kidney injury (AKI) recovery through mechanisms such as oxidative stress reduction, anti-inflammatory effects, improved mitochondrial function, and hemodynamic modulation. Although encouraging data from preclinical and observational studies exist, robust randomized controlled trials are lacking. This mini-review synthesizes current evidence, evaluates its quality, summarizes ongoing clinical trials, and highlights priority areas for future research to guide the safe and effective integration of SGLT2 inhibitors into AKI management.
