Metformin, but not pioglitazone, decreases postchallenge plasma ghrelin levels in type 2 diabetic patients: a possible role in weight stability?

What Was Tested

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

Effects of metformin and pioglitazone on body weight are clearly different.

Recently, the role of ghrelin, an orexigenic peptide derived from stomach, has been appreciated.

The researchers hypothesized that metformin or pioglitazone may modulate circulating ghrelin levels and this modulation may be related to differential effects on body weight with these agents.

Who Took Part

The study group was 2 patients.

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

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

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

At baseline and 4 months later, a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed to measure plasma ghrelin levels.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Area Under Curve, Blood Glucose, Body Mass Index, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Ghrelin, Glucose Tolerance Test and Glycated Hemoglobin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Ghrelin in 2 patients.

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

The publication is from 2008 (Diabetes, obesity & metabolism), a journal based in England.

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