[The long lasting effect of the murine fibroblast growth factor-21 on blood glucose control of diabetic animals].

Insulin is the most common medicine used for diabetic patients, unfortunately, its effective time is short, even the long-acting insulin cannot obtain a satisfactory effect. Fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-21 is a recently discovered glucose mediator and expected to be a potential anti-diabetic drug that does not rely on insulin. In this study, db/db mice were used as the type 2 diabetic model to examine whether mFGF-21 has the long-term blood lowering effect on the animal model. The results showed that mFGF-21 could stably maintain the blood glucose at normal level for a long-term in a dose-dependent manner. Administration of mFGF-21 once a day with three doses (0.125, 0.25 and 0.5 mg x kg(-1)) could maintain blood glucose of the model animals at normal level for at least 24 h. Administration of mFGF-21 every two days with the same doses could maintain blood glucose of the model animals at normal level for at least 48 h, although it took longer time for blood glucose to reach to normal level depending on doses used (twenty injections for 0.125 mg x kg(-1) and 0.25 mg x kg(-1) doses, ten injections for 0.5 mg x kg(-1) dose). Surprisingly, the blood glucose of the treated model animals still maintained at normal level for 24 h after the experiment terminated. Glycosylated hemoglobin level of the animals treated with mFGF-21, which represented long-term glucose status, decreased significantly compared to the control group and the insulin group. The results suggest that FGF-21 has potential to become a long-acting and potent anti-diabetic drug.