Feedback suppression of meal-induced glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion mediated through elevations in intact GLP-1 caused by dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibition: a randomized, prospective comparison of sitagliptin and vildagliptin treatment.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Glucagon.

To compare directly the clinical effects of vildagliptin and sitagliptin in patients with type 2 diabetes, with a special emphasis on incretin hormones and L-cell feedback inhibition induced by dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP-4) inhibition.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 24 patients taking part.

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

How the Study Was Run

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

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

As a double-blind Glucagon study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Glucagon group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the patients took both Glucagon and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

A mixed-meal test was performed.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adamantane, Combined Modality Therapy, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diet, Diabetic, Dipeptidyl-Peptidase IV Inhibitors, Down-Regulation and Exercise Therapy.

The authors tagged it with the keywords DPP-4 inhibitor, GIP, GLP-1, glucose metabolism, sitagliptin and vildagliptin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glucagon in 24 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 2016 (Diabetes, obesity & metabolism), a journal based in England.

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