Metformin and Aging: A Review
Abstract
Metformin is sometimes proposed to be an "anti-aging" drug, based on preclinical experiments with lower-order organisms and numerous retrospective data on beneficial health outcomes for type 2 diabetics. Large prospective, placebo-controlled trials are planned, in pilot stage or running, to find a new use (or indication) for an aging population. As one of the metformin trials has "frailty" as its endpoint, similar to a trial with a plant-derived senolytic, the latter class of novel anti-aging drugs is briefly discussed. Concerns exist not only for vitamin B12 and B6 deficiencies, but also about whether there are adverse effects of metformin on individuals who try to remain healthy by maintaining cardiovascular fitness via exercise.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
There are extra-hepatic sites of action of metformin with the gut being a major contributor to its clinical benefits as an anti-hyperglycemic drug via modulating glucagon-like peptide 1 levels by a duodenal AMPK-mediated pathway, as well as effects resulting from modulating the microbiota.
“We now know there are extra-hepatic sites of action of metformin with the gut being a major contributor to its clinical benefits as an anti-hyperglycemic drug via modulating glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) levels by a duodenal AMPK-mediated pathway, as well as effects resulting from modulating the microbiota (25–29).”
From A Critical Review of the Evidence That Metformin Is a Putative Anti-Aging Drug That Enhances Healthspan and Extends Lifespan (2021) · cites this paper as [28]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 96 · Cited by 149
- Authors
- Glossmann, H. H., & Lutz, O. M. D.
- Affiliations
- Innsbruck Medical University (AT)
- Austrian Drug Screening Institute (Austria) (AT)
- Venue
- Gerontology
- Publisher
- S. Karger AG
- Published
- 2019
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 581-590
- ISSN
- 0304-324X (ISSN-L)
- 1423-0003
- OpenAlex
- W2972360351
- Cited by
- 149
- References
- 96
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Gerontology (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolism, Diabetes, and Cancer
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Treatment and Management
- Keywords
- metformin, anti-aging drugs, aging, frailty, senolytics, type 2 diabetes, vitamin B12 deficiency, vitamin B6 deficiency, physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, drug repurposing
- MeSH terms
- AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Kinases, Aging, Animals, Clinical Trials as Topic, Humans, Hypoglycemic Agents, Longevity, Metformin, Protein Kinases, Rejuvenation, Cellular Senescence, Electron Transport Complex I
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
