Pdx-1 and Insulin Gene Expression in Embryonic and Neonatal Pancreas of Mice: Effects of Metformin Treatment

Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox-1 (pdx-1) plays an important role in mediating the effects of glucose-regulating hormones such as insulin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (glp-1) (1, 2). the research paper entitled “the effects of metformin on pdx-1 and insulin gene expression in mouse embryonic and neonatal pancreas” published by hashemitabar et al. in 2010 (3) reports the effects of metformin on pdx-1 and insulin gene expression in the pancreas of mouse embryos and neonates. the data showed that doubling the dose of metformin from 75 mg/kg to 150 mg/kg and even increasing the dose to 250 mg/kg did not affect pdx-1 and insulin gene expression in both embryonic and neonatal pancreas. interestingly, the authors found that compared to metformin-treated embryos, metformin-treated neonates showed up-regulation of pdx-1 and insulin gene expression. this finding is interesting and suggests a possible maternal role in preventing the effects of metformin on pdx-1 and insulin gene expression in mouse embryonic pancreas. the study design was novel; however, some vital data that could have further strengthened the findings of this study were missing. firstly, the authors divided the pregnant c57bl/6 mice into 2 groups (control: saline-treated and experimental: metformin-treated).