Impact of incretin-based therapy on skeletal muscle health

Koceva, Andrijana (author), Janež, Andrej (author), Jensterle Sever, Mojca (author)

Skeletal muscle is the largest insulin-sensitive tissue in the human body, playing a crucial role in glucose homeostasis, body mobility and overall metabolic health. In obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D), skeletal muscle undergoes structural, functional, and metabolic alterations, including reduced muscle mass, impaired contractile function, increased myosteatosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic low-grade inflammation. Incretin-based therapies such as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) or dual GLP-1/glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) RAs are highly effective treatments for T2D and obesity, producing substantial weight loss. While clinical trials suggest proportional loss of fat and lean mass when using incretin-based therapies, emerging preclinical and translational data indicate potential muscle-specific beneficial effects such as attenuation of atrophy, improved myogenesis, enhanced mitochondrial function and reduced myosteatosis. This review comprehensively summarizes the current preclinical and clinical evidence on the impact of incretin-based therapies on skeletal muscle mass, composition, metabolism, and performance, focusing on mechanistic insights from animal models and translational findings from human studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: obesity, incretin-based treatment, liraglutide
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 16 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 61, iss. 9, art. 1691
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177541
• UDC: 616.4
• ISSN on article: 1648-9144
• DOI: 10.3390/medicina61091691
• COBISS.SI-ID: 249529603
• Publication date in RUL: 24.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Medicina
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1648-9144
• COBISS.SI-ID: 6754623

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: debelost, zdravljenje na osnovi inkretinov, liraglutid