Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2014 Oct 24;12:82. doi: 10.1186/s12915-014-0082-4

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© Luengo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

PMC Copyright notice

Cellular consequences of metformin action at the mitochondria. Metformin enters the cell by organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1), where it then accumulates in the mitochondria. There, metformin inhibits complex I of the electron transport chain and mGDP, resulting in decreased NADH oxidation. Decreased electron chain activity suppresses tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle flux and decreases mitochondrial ATP synthesis. These actions result in increased AMPK signaling, decreased cAMP/PKA signaling, decreased gluconeogenesis and increased glycolysis.