Meta-analysis: The Effect Of Metformin To Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Background:The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liverdisease(NAFLD) is rising, the disease spectrum includes non-alcoholicfatty liver(NAFL)、 non-alcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) and relatedcirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma。The basic treatments include dietand exercise therapy，but no ideal drugs at this time.Many researchershave conducted a series of animal experiments and clinical studies to studywhether metformin has effect to NAFLD.Objective:Evaluating the effect of metformin to biochemicaloutcomes of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients.Methods:By computer search,the data of thirteen randomizedcontrolled clinical trials were searched. Meta-analyses were performed byReview manager5.0statistical software with assessment for heterogeneity.Results:Comparing with diet/exercisetherapy/placebo/hepatoprotectants,metformin can improve the level of ALTand AST,the weighted mean differences (WMDs) were-22.72U/L(95%CI:-31.66，-13.79，P＜0.00001),-10.99U/L(95%CI:-16.04， -5.95，P＜0.0001).At the same time,meformin also can improve the level ofTC and TG,the weighted mean differences (WMDs) were-0.59mmol/L(95%CI:-1.08，-0.10，P=0.02)，-0.48mmol/L(95%CI:-0.70，-0.26，P＜0.0001).The data shows that metformin can improve the levelof HOMA-IR obviously,the weighted mean difference (WMD) was-0.62（95%CI:-0.94，-0.30，P=0.0002）.But through the study data,metformincannot improve the level of BMI,the weighted mean difference (WMD)was-1.54Kg/㎡(95%CI:-3.22,0.15，P=0.07）.Conclusion:Metformin can improve the level of ALT、AST、TC、TG and obviously improve the insulin resistance of non-alcoholic fattyliver disease patients.The study data suggests that metformin hastherapeutic effect to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients.