Long-term treatment of glucagon-like peptide-1 analog exendin-4 ameliorates diabetic nephropathy through improving metabolic anomalies in db/db mice

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a gut incretin hormone and is a new clinically available class of agents for improving of insulin resistance in both animals and humans with type 2 diabetes. These studies aimed to determine whether long-term treatment with a long-acting GLP-1 analog, exendin-4, delayed the progression of diabetes. Male db/db mice and db/m mice at 8 wk of age were treated with exendin-4 for 8 wk, whereas the control db/db mice received only vehicle. Urinary albumin excretion was significantly decreased in db/db mice that were treated with 1 nmol/kg exendin-4 compared with those in db/db mice that were treated with 0.5 nmol/kg exendin-4 and control db/db mice (P < 0.005). Intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test was improved in db/db mice that were treated with 1 nmol/kg exendin-4 compared with other groups (P < 0.05). Despite this, fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and creatinine concentrations were not significantly different among db/db mice. Renal histology studies further demonstrated that glomerular hypertrophy, mesangial matrix expansion, TGF-beta 1 expression, and type IV collagen accumulation and associated glomerular lipid accumulation were significantly decreased in db/db mice that were treated with 1 nmol/kg exendin-4. Furthermore, there were fewer infiltrating inflammatory cells and apoptotic cells in the glomeruli of db/db mice that were treated with 1 nmol/kg exendin-4 compared with those in the other groups accompanied by an increase in the renal immunoreactivity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor a and GLP-1 receptor-positive cells and a decrease in 24-h urinary 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine levels (P < 0.01, respectively) along with decreases in lipid content. Taken together, exendin-4 treatment seems to ameliorate diabetic nephropathy together with improvement of the metabolic anomalies. These results suggest that exendin-4 could provide a therapeutic role in diabetic nephropathy that results from type 2 diabetes.