Single dose glucagon ([amount hidden] IV bolus) administration in healthy human volunteers is a robust model for assessment of glycogenolysis: characterisation of the glucose excursion after glucagon challenge

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Glucagon, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Hepatic glucose handling is abnormal in Type 2 diabetes.

The researchers evaluated glucagon challenge as a way of assessing effects on the glycogenolytic pathway.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 2 subjects were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-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.

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

Some subjects 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.

Study 1 was a double-blind placebo controlled study comparing glucagon administered twice with saline placebo.

In study 2, insulin concentrations were also monitored before and after the glucagon challenge.

What Was Measured

The researchers evaluated glucagon challenge as a way of assessing effects on the glycogenolytic pathway.

The subject headings attached to it are Blood Glucose, Glucagon and Glycogenolysis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glucagon in 2 subjects.

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 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2007 (Journal of pharmacological and toxicological methods), a journal based in United States.

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