Insulin Sensitizers and Atherosclerosis

抄録

It is surprising that only about ten years after the concept of insulin resistance in diabetes mellitus was established, the role of insulin resistance in the development of atherosclerosis has been discussed and clarified. Insulin resistance predisposes the development of glucose intolerance, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension; the cluster of these abnormalities is referred to as multiple risk factor syndrome and it increases the risk of atherosclerosis. A few insulin sensitizers have recently begun to be used in the therapy for diabetic patients. However, the inhibitory effects of these insulin sensitizers against atherosclerosis have not been studied in large-scale clinical trials because these drugs were approved for clinical treatment only several years ago. Accordingly, this review presents a summary of the previous studies on the anti-atherogenic effects of insulin sensitizers by different strategies and provides information on why it is expected that insulin sensitizers will be used as anti-atherogenic drugs.