Octreotide (somatostatin analog) treatment reduces endothelial cell dysfunction in patients with diabetes mellitus

Octreotide is a long-acting somatostatin analog that has been shown to have various effects in diabetes. This study was performed to evaluate whether octreotide affects the vascular complications of diabetes mellitus. Albuminuria and serum thrombomodulin were used as markers of vascular and renal dysfunction. We studied the effect of octreotide in 27 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). They received 200 microg octreotide per day over a period of 6 months. As a marker of endothelial cell damage, we measured the serum thrombomodulin level. We also measured urinary albumin excretion, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), and other parameters. IGF-1 decreased from 123 ng/mL before treatment to 114 ng/mL after 6 months of octreotide treatment (P = .009), while no significant change was observed in the unblinded control group (from 103 ng/mL to 102 ng/mL after 6 months of treatment). Urinary albumin excretion in patients with macroalbuminuria declined from 1,124 mg/L before octreotide treatment to 556 mg/L after 6 months of treatment (P < .05), whereas no change was observed in the control group. There was also a reduction of the plasma thrombomodulin level from 61.8 ng/mL to 46.1 ng/mL (P < .07) after 6 months of treatment. Furthermore, HbA1c decreased from 8.75% +/- 1.27% to 8.12% +/- 1.23% (P < .07) after octreotide treatment.