Tier 3 — preclinical

Effect of Nicotinamide Mononucleotide on Retinal Thickness of Older Patients With Diabetes Mellitus: A Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Study

Akihiko Shiraki, Chikako Hara, Hiroshi Akasaka, Hironori Nakagami, Ken Sugimoto, Yukiko Yasunobe, Tomohiro Minami, Taku Fujimoto, Koichi Yamamoto, Kento Asano, Masanobu Kanou, Kei Yamana, Shin-ichiro Imai, Hiromi Rakugi, Kohji Nishida
Geriatrics & Gerontology International 2026 26(5):e70516

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 42082179
DOI
10.1111/ggi.70516
Funding
Research funding: Teijin Pharma.
Competing interests
Masanobu Kanou was an employee of TEIJIN Ltd. and NOMON, which manufactures and sells NMN; Kei Yamana was an employee of NOMON and Teijin Group. The other authors declared no conflicts.

Study snapshot

DesignSecondary ophthalmic analysis of a placebo-controlled, double-blind randomized trial.
ModelOlder men with type 2 diabetes and physical frailty.
Sample7 patients per group; 14 eyes per group were analyzed, with ocular disease present in some eyes.
InterventionNMN 250 mg/day versus placebo.
Duration24 weeks.
EndpointsRetinal thickness across nine ETDRS grid regions by optical coherence tomography; Best-corrected visual acuity; Systemic and ophthalmic adverse events

What the study showed, in plain terms

This paper is a secondary eye analysis from the small Akasaka diabetes/frailty trial. Seven patients per group received 250 mg/day NMN or placebo for 24 weeks, and retinal thickness was compared across ETDRS macular regions.

One temporal outer retinal region showed a statistically different thickness change between groups, while visual acuity did not significantly change. With only seven patients per arm, multiple retinal regions and some pre-existing ocular disease, the result is exploratory rather than proof that NMN protects the human retina.

Key findings

  • The temporal outer ETDRS subfield showed a significant between-group retinal-thickness change (+1.14 μm NMN vs −2.77 μm placebo; p=0.006).
  • Among participants without ocular disease, the temporal-region difference was a non-significant trend.
  • Best-corrected visual acuity did not significantly change.
  • No systemic or ophthalmic adverse events were reported in the NMN group.

What this study can and cannot tell us

Only seven patients per group contributed to this secondary analysis, several eyes had ocular disease, and multiple retinal subfields were examined. The analysis comes from the same cohort as the Akasaka 2023 trial and should not be counted as an independent trial.

Related papers in the corpus

Tier 2
Effects of nicotinamide mononucleotide on older patients with diabetes and impaired physical performance: A prospective, placebo-controlled, double-blind study
Hiroshi Akasaka et al. · Geriatrics & Gerontology International · 2023

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Dr. Khaled Mahmoud, MBBChCritical Care Medicine, Longevity Science & Editorial Direction Dr. Amr Yasser, PhDCardiometabolic, Musculoskeletal, Gut & Bioavailability Dr. Abdulla Mostafa, PhDCellular Senescence, Neurological, Mitochondrial & Brain-Ageing Biology