The diabetes drug pioglitazone helps diabetics to be less resistant to insulin. Pioglitazone belongs to a class of drugs known as thiazolidinediones and is popularly marketed under the brand name Actos®.

A team from the University of Chicago in their study of 462 patients with type-2 diabetes found that patients in pioglitazone has less thick arteries than those on a different diabetic drug like glimepiride.

After 72 week, the thickness of the arteries increased by an average of 0.012 millimetres in the glimepiride group.

But among the patients given pioglitazone, average thickness actually fell by 0.001 millimetres.

Pioglitazone patients also recorded lower levels of sugar in their blood, and higher levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol.

The good blood chemistry that the drug produces on type-2 diabetes patients may be the reason why it reduced the thickness of the artery walls. The direct mechanism by which this happens is yet unknown.

Moreover, whether the reduction in the thickness of artery walls will lead to fewer heart attacks among diabetics, remain to be seen and will take further investigation.

Source: BBC News