A Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor Modulates the Skin Hydration State in Type 2 Diabetes Patients: Post-Hoc Analysis of a Prospective, Open-Label Pilot Study

A Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor Modulates the Skin Hydration State in Type Abstract We conducted a prospective open-label, short-term, and double-arm exploratory study to investigate changes in the skin hydration state in Japanese patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) treated with either 50 mg ipragliflozin (a Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor: SGLT2i) (n=8) or 50 mg sitagliptin (as a control) (n=6) 1×/day for 14 days. We performed a post-hoc analysis of reported clinical data to determine whether ipragliflozin's effects on skin hydration were dependent on the baseline skin water content. The skin hydration state was measured by three standard methods. SGLT2i significantly reduced both the skin water content and the transepidermal water loss in only the T2DM patients with the higher baseline values (not in the lower baseline group classified by the respective median values). No such relationship occurred in the sitagliptin-treated patients. These results indicate that the skin hydration state is well-controlled depending on the skin hydration state during 14-day treatment with SGLT2i.