Metformin: Antidiabetic actions from cells to tissues

Abstract

Metformin (dimethyl biguanide) is a primary pharmacotherapy to treat hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes. It counters the effects of insulin resistance, improves glucose homeostasis, assists weight control and avoids overt hypoglycemia via reduced hepatic gluconeogenesis, increased splanchnic glucose turnover and greater peripheral glucose utilization. The underlying cellular actions of metformin differ between tissues and drug exposures. High concentrations of metformin (e.g. millimolar in the intestine) can interrupt the mitochondrial respiratory chain at complex 1, increase cytosolic NADH (favouring pyruvate conversion to lactate), decrease ATP synthesis, raise cytosolic AMP and activate AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Lesser concentrations of metformin in liver can interrupt the respiratory chain at complex 4, which inhibits mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and impedes the mitochondrial glycerophosphate shuttle. Low concentrations of metformin (e.g., ∼10 μM) can activate AMPK by a lysosomal pathway without interrupting oxidative metabolism. While AMPK implements many of the metabolic effects of metformin, other contributing mechanisms include separate effects on metabolic pathways (e.g. inhibiting fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase) and signalling intermediates (e.g. inhibiting phosphatases) to reinforce the actions of insulin. Thus, the antidiabetic effects of metformin reflect diverse concentration-dependent cellular actions on nutrient metabolism and energetics in different tissues. The breadth of cellular actions of metformin encourages investigation of potential opportunities to assist in the management of cardiovascular, inflammatory, neoplastic and neurodegenerative disorders.