Sitagliptin as a Novel Treatment Agent for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background/Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver injury, and is considered as the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome. However, no effective drug therapy for NAFLD has been established yet. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of 4 months of treatment with sitagliptin in NAFLD patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methodology: We evaluated 30 NAFLD patients with type 2 DM. NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasonography. The patients were administered sitagliptin (50mg/body/day) for 4 months. Results: Significant decreases of the plasma glucose and serum HbA1c, AST, ALT and gamma-GTP levels were observed after 4 months of treatment with sitagliptin. Conclusions: In this study, not only the parameters of diabetes, but also those of liver tests were improved by the treatment with sitagliptin. Our study demonstrated the efficacy of sitagliptin in NAFLD patients with type 2 DM, suggesting that a large-scale clinical trial is warranted in the future.