Study Shows Empagliflozin May Also Improve Erectile Dysfunction in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes
Empagliflozin, a diabetes drug that controls glucose levels, may also help ameliorate erectile dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Hyperglycemia is associated with erectile dysfunction (ED).
In a study to be presented June 6 at the 2015 American Diabetes Association annual meeting in Boston, MA, researchers report that empagliflozin (Jardiance/ Boehringer Ingelheim) mitigated that condition in rats.
Eric Mayoux and colleagues in France and Germany found that when a group of diabetic rats that got the drug for 4 weeks erectile function was markedly improved. The drug is an SGLT-2 inhibitor that works to improve glycemic control.
The effect of chronic empagliflozin was assessed both in vivo on erectile function and ex vivo on endothelium-dependent, independent and nitrergic relaxations of corpus cavernosum of diabetic rats.
“These results suggest that besides glucose control, SGLT-2 inhibition by empagliflozin might provide an additional potential advantage of improving erectile function in type 2 diabetic patients,” they concluded.
The drug received US Food and Drug Administration approval in August, 2014.
The manufacturer provided funding for the study.
