**5. Summary**

The role of comperatively older drugs such as insulin, insulin secretagogues, metformin, thiazolidinediones and alpha glucosidase inhbitors in the management of diabetes are familiar aspects of diabetes therapy. These medications target insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity and glucose absorption, which may be intrepreted as having limited targets in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Definition of incretin hormones and their role on β-cell function and survival are the new aspects of the pathogenesis of diabetes, and management of hyperglycemia. Besides the novelty of incretin based therapies in the management of diabetes, their roles on β-cell function and regeneration, which are really promising effects for an anti-diabetic agent are so interesting and need to be observed in long term clinical practice. Possible effects of these drugs that is associated with their pleitropic effects, which have been shown in invitro studies on diabetes related complications are the new era in diabetology. In our opinion the role of incretin besed therapies in the progression of diabetes and diabetic complications will be determined in the future, although fovarable or not.
