Gender-related different effects of a combined therapy of Exenatide and Metformin on overweight or obesity patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: Although men and women have similar diabetes prevalence, the same medicine will cause different therapeutic results in different genders. To understand the molecular mechanism, we explored the effects of a combined therapy of Exenatide and Metformin on obesity and overweight female and male patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: One hundred and five overweight and obesity patients with newly diagnosed T2DM (n=54 female in a female group and n=51 males in a male group) received the therapy: 5 μg Exenatide+0.5 g MET twice daily for 4 weeks, then 10 μg Exenatide+0.5 g MET twice daily for 24 weeks.

Results: There was an average of 8.2 ± 2.4 kg and 4.6 ± 2.3 kg weight loss in female and male patients, respectively. The combined therapy showed better effects on female than male patients for improving insulin sensitivity and serum lipid profile, reducing insulin resistance, increasing adiponectin levels, and decreasing the levels of HbA1c, BMI, resistin, TNF-alpha and C-reactive protein (P<0.05).

Conclusions: The combined therapy of Exenatide and MET shows better therapeutic results in female patients than in male patients. Therefore, the dual therapy is more suitable for female patients.

Keywords: Combination therapy; Exenatide; Gender difference; Metformin; Type 2 diabetes mellitus.