The effect of physiological levels of glucagon-like peptide-1 on appetite, gastric emptying, energy and substrate metabolism in obesity

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Glucagon in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Visual analogue scales were used to assess appetite sensations, thirst and comfort throughout the experiment and palatability of the test meals.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, men only.

Eighteen obese men participated in the placebo-controlled, randomized, single-blinded, cross-over study with infusion of GLP-1 or saline.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Glucagon and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Only one side, usually the participants, was kept unaware of whether Glucagon was given.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Glucagon, giving a reference point.

Each person switched between Glucagon and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Resting metabolic rate (RMR) and substrate oxidations were measured by ventilated hood before and after an energy-fixed breakfast.

Gastric emptying was measured using paracetamol as a marker.

Blood was sampled for analysis of hormones (GLP-1, GLP-2, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), insulin, glucagon), and substrates (glucose, lactate, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), triacylglycerol (TAG)).

Ad libitum energy intake at lunch was registered.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Appetite, Basal Metabolism, Body Mass Index, Energy Metabolism, Gastric Emptying, Glucagon and Glucagon-Like Peptide 1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, single-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glucagon.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2001 (International journal of obesity and related metabolic disorders : journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity), a journal based in England.

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