Metformin: a 60-year odyssey with the journey still continuing – a personal commentary from Professor Ian Campbell

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Declaration of funding

This commentary was not funded.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

I.C. has disclosed that he has received consultancy and/or speaking fees from Johnson and Johnson, Lily, Merck and Sanofi. CMRO peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Box 1 Vascular effects of metformin

Anti-atherogenic actions

• Decreased cholesterol deposition

• Decreased lipid peroxidation

• Decreased oxidative stress

• Increased endothelial function

Anti-thrombotic actions

• Decreased platelet activation

• Increased blood flow

• Decreased PAI-1

• Increased fibrin breakdown

Anti-inflammatory actions

• Decreased C-reactive protein

Acknowledgements

I thank colleagues Professor Cliff Bailey, Dr. Caroline Day and Dr. Harry Howlett for their collaboration and support over the past 40 years. I also thank Professor Rury Holman for inviting me to chair the presentation of key results of UKPDS at four international meetings: three at EASD, one at IDF, 1998–2013. I also thank Dr. Kerstin Brand and Dr. Ulrike Hostalek of Merck KGaA for their support in recent years of my interest and writings in GDM and prediabetes. Finally, I am extremely grateful to my three mentors during my training years in diabetes in Edinburgh: Drs Leslie Duncan, Basil Clarke and John Munro. It is said that “to mentor is to invest in the future”. I thank them for investing in mine.