Effects of Semaglutide on Body Composition and GFR: A Prespecified Analysis of the SMART Trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Semaglutide.

The researchers measured GFR with iohexol clearance, estimated GFR with creatinine and cystatin C, and used bioimpedance spectroscopy to determine lean body mass, fat mass, and extracellular water.

Why It Was Studied

Changes in lean body mass or fat mass during semaglutide treatment did not correlate with changes in creatinine or cystatin C‑eGFR or measured GFR.

Semaglutide may influence serum creatinine and cystatin C levels by nonkidney-related mechanisms and thereby affect eGFR.

Who Took Part

The study group was 101 adults.

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

The researchers performed a prespecified analysis of a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trial in 101 adults with CKD with overweight status or obesity and without type 2 diabetes.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The adults were allocated by chance, so the Semaglutide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the adults and researchers unaware of who received Semaglutide.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Semaglutide group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

Changes in lean body mass or fat mass during semaglutide treatment did not correlate with changes in creatinine or cystatin C‑eGFR or measured GFR.

Semaglutide may influence serum creatinine and cystatin C levels by nonkidney-related mechanisms and thereby affect eGFR.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Blood Pressure, Body Composition, Creatinine, Cystatin C, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Glucagon-Like Peptides and Hypoglycemic Agents.

Author keywords: CKD, GLP-1 receptor agonists, clinical trial, creatinine clearance, lean body mass and mechanisms.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Semaglutide in 101 adults.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2026 (Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN), a journal based in United States.

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