Research
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Metformin reduces hepatocyte triglyceride accumulation and plasma triglycerides in NAFLD patients by inhibiting ApoA5 synthesis via the AMPK/LXRα signaling pathway.
For those with fatty liver, metformin may help reduce liver fat by blocking specific proteins (ApoA5) that store fat in the liver. However, it is not currently a recommended or proven standalone treatment for NAFLD in clinical guidelines, so lifestyle changes remain the primary intervention.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Metformin suppresses hepatic accumulation of TG induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in vivo and in vitro... Metformin reduces hepatic TG accumulation through the inhibition of hepatic ApoA5 synthesis, which is partially mediated through the AMPK/LXRα signaling pathway
Why this rating
Strong mechanistic evidence in cells/mice, but clinical evidence for treating NAFLD is explicitly stated as lacking.
Source
Metformin: An Old Drug with New Applications
Joseph Zhou et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2018
DOI 10.3390/ijms19102863
narrative_reviewCited 229×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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