Effect of liraglutide on dietary lipid-induced insulin resistance in humans

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Liraglutide in the context of insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes.

To test whether liraglutide suppresses postprandial elevations in lipids and thus protects against high saturated fatty acid (SFA) diet-induced insulin resistance.

Who Took Part

The study group was 32 participants.

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

In a randomized placebo-controlled crossover study, 32 participants with normal or mildly impaired glucose tolerance received liraglutide and placebo for 3 weeks each.

Insulin suppression tests (IST) were conducted at baseline and after a 24-hour SFA-enriched diet after each treatment.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

Some participants received a placebo instead of Liraglutide, giving a reference point.

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

A time span of 3 weeks appears in the methods.

Plasma glucose, insulin, triglycerides and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) were measured over the initial 8 hours (breakfast and lunch) on the SFA diet.

A subset of participants underwent ex vivo measurements of insulin-mediated vasodilation of adipose tissue arterioles and glucose metabolism regulatory proteins in skeletal muscle.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Diet, High-Fat, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor, Hyperlipidemias, Hypoglycemic Agents and Incretins.

Author keywords: insulin resistance, liraglutide and randomised trial.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study of Liraglutide in 32 participants in people with insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes over 3 weeks.

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.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (Diabetes, obesity & metabolism), a journal based in England.

More context: the Liraglutide compound page, Insulin resistance, prediabetes & type 2 diabetes research.