Metformin-induced glucagon-like peptide-1 secretion contributes to the actions of metformin in type 2 diabetes.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Glucagon.

Whether this is a direct action of metformin on GLP-1 release, and whether some of the glucose-lowering effect of metformin occurs due to GLP-1 release, is unknown.

The current study investigated metformin-induced GLP-1 secretion and its contribution to the overall glucose-lowering effect of metformin and underlying mechanisms in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Twelve patients with type 2 diabetes were included in this placebo-controlled, double-blinded study.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled 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 participants and researchers unaware of who received Glucagon.

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

During 240 minutes, blood was sampled.

The direct effect of metformin on GLP-1 secretion was tested ex vivo in human ileal and colonic tissue with and without dorsomorphin-induced inhibiting of the AMPK activity.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Australia, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Glucagon-Like Peptide 1, Metformin and Postprandial Period.

Author keywords: Endocrinology and Metabolism.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2018 (JCI insight), a journal based in United States.

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