No effect of physiological concentrations of glucagon-like peptide-2 on appetite and energy intake in normal weight subjects.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Glucagon.

To examine the effect of a GLP-2 infusion on appetite sensations and ad libitum energy intake in healthy, normal weight humans.

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 men.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

The experiment was performed in a randomised, blinded, and placebo-controlled crossover design.

A total of 18 healthy, normal weight young subjects participated; eight women and 10 men.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

Blinding on both sides kept the men and researchers unaware of who received Glucagon.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Glucagon could be set against what happens without it.

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

During the infusion, subjects recorded their appetite sensations every 30 min using visual analogue scales, and blood was sampled frequently.

After 2 h of infusion, an ad libitum meal, consisting of sandwiches, was served.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Appetite, Energy Intake, Feeding Behavior, Glucagon-Like Peptide 1, Glucagon-Like Peptide 2, Peptides and Postprandial Period.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glucagon in 10 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (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.