Reductions in liver enzymes are associated with anti-hyperglycaemic and anti-obesity effects of tofogliflozin in people with type 2 diabetes: Post-hoc analyses

Aims

How the pathology of type 2 diabetes (T2D), including hyperglycaemia and obesity, affects liver enzymes has not been clinically demonstrated. Thus, we compared time courses of gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) with those of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and body weight (BW) during treatment with the SGLT2 inhibitor tofogliflozin for T2D.

Materials and Methods

We post-hoc analysed preexisting data on 1046 people with T2D administered tofogliflozin or placebo for 24 weeks in four tofogliflozin studies. First, time courses of percent changes in variables during the intervention were analysed using a mixed effect model to explore the similarity of the time courses and to evaluate time-treatment interactions. Second, clinical factors related to the percent changes in GGT and ALT were clarified using multivariate analyses.

Results

GGT levels and FPG values rapidly and significantly decreased via tofogliflozin as early as week 4, with decreases maintained until week 24. Conversely, BW and ALT decreased progressively until week 24. Time courses of FPG (p = .365, time-treatment interaction) and GGT (p = .510) reductions were parallel between tofogliflozin and placebo from weeks 4 to 24, while BW and ALT reductions (p < .001, respectively) were not. Reductions in GGT at week 24 were associated with reductions in FPG and BW at week 24, whereas ALT reductions were only associated with reductions in BW.

Conclusions

Reductions in GGT and ALT were associated with the anti-hyperglycaemic and anti-obesity effects of tofogliflozin, respectively, in people with T2D. Therefore, GGT and ALT may be surrogate markers for hyperglycaemia and obesity in T2D.