Proton pump inhibitors: impact on glucose metabolism

Diabetes mellitus is a complex chronic disease associated with an absolute insulin deficiency in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and a progressive deterioration of β-cell function in type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D pathophysiology has numerous defects including incretin deficiency/resistance. Gastrin has demonstrated to be an islet growth factor (like glucagon-like peptide-1, epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor-α,…) and be able to restore a functional β-cell mass in diabetic animals. This hormone is likely to stimulate insulin secretion during an ordinary protein-rich meal, this is, to have an incretin-like effect. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can raise serum gastrin concentration significantly and therefore, affect to glucose metabolism through promoting β-cell regeneration/expansion and also enhancing insulin secretion. The present paper aims to review studies concerning the effect of PPIs on glucose metabolism. Several research groups have recently explored the potential role of this class of drugs on glycemic control, mainly in T2D. The results show antidiabetic properties for the PPIs with a global glucose-lowering power around 0.6-0.7 % points of HbA1c, but the level of evidence for the available literature is still not high. If these data start to become demonstrated in the ongoing clinical trials, PPIs could become a new antidiabetic agent with a good and safe profile for T2D and even useful for T1D, particularly in the area of islet transplantation to preserve β-cell mass.