Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Apr 30, 2019; 7(4): 129-141
Published online Apr 30, 2019. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v7.i4.129
Anti-inflammatory properties of antidiabetic agents
Eleni Xourgia, Eleni-Margarita Tzouganatou, Athanasia Papazafeiropoulou, Andreas Melidonis
Eleni Xourgia, Eleni-Margarita Tzouganatou, Athanasia Papazafeiropoulou, Andreas Melidonis, 1st Department of Internal Medicine and Diabetes Center, Tzaneio General Hospital of Piraeus, Athens 18536, Greece
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: 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/
Corresponding author: Athanasia Papazafeiropoulou, MD, MSc, PhD, Attending Doctor, Research Scientist, 1st Department of Internal Medicine and Diabetes Center, Tzaneio General Hospital of Piraeus, 1 Zanni and Afentouli Street, Athens 18536, Greece. pathan@ath.forthnet.gr
Telephone: +30-697-996483
Received: March 19, 2019
Peer-review started: March 19, 2019
First decision: April 13, 2019
Revised: April 20, 2019
Accepted: April 23, 2019
Article in press: April 23, 2019
Published online: April 30, 2019
Processing time: 42 Days and 8.4 Hours
Abstract

The reciprocal relationship between hyperglycemia and inflammation in the setting of diabetes mellitus has been the subject of extensive research. Insulin resistance, the hallmark of diabetic metabolic dysregulation, has been linked to the inflammatory cascade occurring mainly in adipose tissue. The main pathophysiologic processes facilitating the aforementioned interplay, is a phenotype switch of macrophages to the M1 class following gluco- and lipotoxicity and gut microbial remodeling. Given the correlation between inflammation and metabolic abnormalities, the elucidation of the exact mechanisms linking the two along with exploring the possible role of modulation of one in order to alter the other, could open up the possibility of novel therapeutic approaches for diabetes mellitus and its complications. Therefore, the aim of this review is to summarize the growing body of evidence concerning the molecular basis and results of pro-inflammatory processes in diabetic subjects along with the effect of current antidiabetic treatment options on tissue inflammation.

Keywords: Inflammation; Adipose tissue; Anti-inflammatory; Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Antidiabetic drugs

Core tip: In this review, we aim to create a concise overview of the interplay between hyperglycemia and inflammation, while describing the immunomodulatory potential of each antidiabetic drug and its effects exerted in the inflammatory cascade in subjects with type 2 diabetes.