Conclusion
OA, hypoglycemic
A 4-month period of treatment of non-diabetic OA patients with metformin provided significant beneficial effects. Due to good safety profile and limited and mostly tolerable side effects of metformin, this oral hypoglycemic agent may be considered as an alternative or adjuvant treatment of OA patients. Additionally, significant associations with OA susceptibility were observed in carriers of different variants of 938C>A and A181V polymorphisms. We identified a possible risk genotype, wild genotype (CC) of Bcl-2 and wild allele (G) of CXCL-16 for OA susceptibility. Assessing patients more at risk of OA based on their genetic pattern may provide clues for considering preventive options in patients more at risk.