Semaglutide in patients with kidney failure and obesity undergoing dialysis and wishing to be transplanted: A prospective, observational, open-label study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Semaglutide in this observational study publication.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and obesity are major global health challenges, eventually leading to kidney replacement therapy (KRT), but body mass index (BMI) thresholds hinder kidney transplantation.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 13 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The researchers conducted a prospective 12-week, open-label trial with 13 patients who had a BMI ≥ 30.00 kg/m2, were undergoing dialysis (12 haemodialysis and 1 peritoneal dialysis) and had not been listed for transplantation due to their weight.

Study endpoints included change in body weight and BMI (primary - statistically evaluated by repeated measures analysis of variance [ANOVA]), side effects, adverse events, blood parameters and patient-reported outcomes (secondary).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as an open-label study.

Everyone knew when Semaglutide was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Body Mass Index, Glucagon-Like Peptides, Hypoglycemic Agents, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Kidney Transplantation, Obesity and Renal Dialysis.

The authors tagged it with the keywords chronic kidney disease, gender, glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonist, nephrology and semaglutide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is an open-label study of Semaglutide in 13 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2024 (Diabetes, obesity & metabolism), a journal based in England.

More context: the Semaglutide compound page, all human trials.