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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Nephrol. Dec 25, 2025; 14(4): 112302
Published online Dec 25, 2025. doi: 10.5527/wjn.v14.i4.112302
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
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.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Muhammad Umar Ahsan, Researcher, Department of Medicine, D.G.Khan Medical College, College Chowk, Dera Ghazi Khan 32200, Punjab, Pakistan.
Received: July 23, 2025
Revised: August 15, 2025
Accepted: December 8, 2025
Published online: December 25, 2025
Processing time: 153 Days and 14.3 Hours
Revised: August 15, 2025
Accepted: December 8, 2025
Published online: December 25, 2025
Processing time: 153 Days and 14.3 Hours
Core Tip
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.