Multimedia Release

A fish that grows old in months reveals how kidneys age—and how a common drug protects them

Published in Kidney International, new study establishes the African turquoise killifish as a rapid-aging model of kidney decline and reveals mechanisms underlying the protective effects of SGLT2 inhibitors

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MDI Biological Laboratory

SGLT2 inhibitors maintain youthful capillaries

image: 

Blood vessels in a young African turquoise killifish (left) are dense and healthy. As the fish age (center) vessels become less dense, with fewer branches. Older fish treated over time with SGLT2 inhibitors (right) maintained youthful vasculature (Hannah Somers, Anastasia Paulmann, M.D., MDI Bio Lab)

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Credit: Hannah Somers, Anastasia Paulmann, M.D., MDI Biological Laboratory

Journal

Kidney International

DOI

10.1016/j.kint.2025.12.011

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibition improves age-dependent kidney microvascular rarefaction

Article Publication Date

23-Dec-2025

COI Statement

HH received research support from AstraZeneca and lecture honoraria from Alexion, Bayer Inc., and Vifor Pharma. HS received honoraria for presentations from AstraZeneca and GSK and consulting fees from Techspert. The sodium-glucose linked transporter 2 inhibitor, dapagliflozin, was generously provided by AstraZeneca; however, the company had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript preparation. All the other authors declared no competing interests.

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