Effects of exenatide vs. metformin on endothelial function in obese patients with pre-diabetes: a randomized trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Exenatide.

The researchers compared the acute and chronic effects of the GLP-1 receptor agonist exenatide vs. metformin on endothelial function in patients with obesity and pre-diabetes.

This study is registered on http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/: NCT00546728.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Seven subjects with IGT participated in a sub-study comparing the effects of pre-administration of exenatide and metformin on postprandial endothelial function.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and open-label.

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

Everyone knew when Exenatide was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

The researchers performed a randomized, open-label, clinical trial in 50 non-diabetic individuals (mean age 58.5 ± 10.0; 38 females) with abdominal obesity and either impaired fasting glucose, elevated HbA1c, or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) who were randomized to receive 3-months of exenatide or metformin.

Microvascular endothelial function, assessed by digital reactive hyperemia (reactive hyperemic index: RHI), C-reactive protein (CRP), circulating oxidized LDL (oxLDL), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) were measured at baseline and 3-months.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Analysis of Variance, Biomarkers, Blood Glucose, C-Reactive Protein, Endothelium, Vascular, Exenatide and Glycated Hemoglobin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Exenatide.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (Cardiovascular diabetology), a journal based in England.

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