Objective　The efficacy for type 1 diabetes and the hypoglycemia risk of sodium-glucose co-transporter 2（SGLT2）inhibitor, tofogliflozin, a drug for type 2 diabetes, were estimated using animal model.
Methods　Tofogliflozin, highly selective SGLT2 inhibitor, was investigated using the streptozotocin（STZ）-induced rats as broadly used type 1 diabetes animal model.
Results　Tofogliflozin indicated glucose-lowering action in STZ rats, and the action was enhanced by the combination with insulin. Compared with insulin alone, the variance of glucose -lowering effect was small and excessive blood glucose lowering effect was hardly observed by the combination of tofogliflozin and insulin. In addition, in order to evaluate whether extremely high selectivity for SGLT2 is useful to avoid hypoglycemia risk, tofogliflozin was compared to the phlorizin, non-selective SGLT1 and SGLT2 inhibitor. Under the condition of low blood glucose levels with insulin administration, phlorizin administration tended to exhibit further decrease in blood glucose level, however, no excessive reduction was observed with tofogliflozin treatment, suggesting that the selectivity for SGLT1/2 might be important to avoid hypoglycemia.
Conclusions　These findings suggest that tofogliflozin is a potent anti-diabetic drug not only for type 2 diabetes but also for type 1 diabetes with low risk of hypoglycemia.