Clinical Trial Details
— Status: Completed
Administrative data
| NCT number |
NCT02328235 |
| Other study ID # |
06-367 |
| Secondary ID |
|
| Status |
Completed |
| Phase |
N/A
|
| First received |
|
| Last updated |
|
| Start date |
January 2013 |
| Est. completion date |
March 9, 2018 |
Study information
| Verified date |
April 2024 |
| Source |
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
| Contact |
n/a |
| Is FDA regulated |
No |
| Health authority |
|
| Study type |
Interventional
|
Clinical Trial Summary
Skeletal muscle burns a significant amount of the fat and sugar that circulates in the blood
stream. Ideally, when sugar is elevated in the blood stream, the muscle will either use it to
make new energy or store it for later use. Likewise, for fatty acids. Skeletal muscle of
obese and diabetic humans has been shown to inadequately use either sugar or fatty acids when
they increase in the blood stream, and this has been termed metabolic inflexibility. The
cause of metabolic inflexibility is not known, but it is believed that eating more fat than
the body needs for energy may be a contributing factor. Metabolic inflexibility in skeletal
muscle is bad because if the muscle does not use the sugar or fat, it will be stored
elsewhere in the body and potentially lead to obesity and the resistance to insulin. The
investigators have performed a research study with nonobese, healthy humans during which we
fed them a high fat diet for 5 days. Interesting, only 5 days of a high fat diet is
sufficient to cause the skeletal muscle to become metabolically inflexible just like that
observed in obese and diabetic humans. The investigators are proposing addition studies to
feed healthy humans a high fat diet for 5 days in effort to better understand what causes
metabolic flexibility. The investigators are speculating that a high fat diet causes the
intestines to release a substance called endotoxin that causes muscle to become metabolically
inflexible. The investigators will test this notion in our proposed studies.
Description:
Objective: To discern the potential mechanism(s) by which high saturated fat feeding disrupts
normal skeletal muscle metabolism. Our working hypothesis is that high saturated fat feeding
increases gut permeability and blood endotoxin, which elicits pro-inflammatory signaling in
skeletal muscle and alters the normal adaptive response to a meal. Preliminary evidence using
a model of acute (5 days), high saturated fat feeding, isocaloric to habitual intake, in
healthy, non-obese humans is presented herein to support this hypothesis.
Background: The inability for skeletal muscle to adapt fuel oxidation to fuel availability is
termed metabolic inflexibility, a well characterized feature of disease states such as
obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). The mechanism(s) responsible for
skeletal muscle metabolic inflexibility are not known. Recently, there has been growing
interest in the role of gut permeability and blood endotoxin in the pathology of metabolic
derangements associated with obesity and T2D. Rodent studies have revealed direct links
between the gut microbiome and metabolic disease, as well as associations between elevated
blood endotoxin and metabolic dysregulation, both at the whole body and tissue level. High
fat feeding in rodents is known to elicit elevated levels of blood endotoxin, a phenomenon
that is termed metabolic endotoxemia. In humans, obesity and T2D are associated with
increased blood endotoxin and single meals have been shown to elevate blood endotoxin, but to
date, there is no evidence in humans that high fat feeding results in metabolic endotoxemia.
Moreover, there are no established links between gut permeability, metabolic endotoxemia, and
skeletal muscle metabolic function in humans.
Approach. We are proposing to utilize a model of acute high fat feeding in healthy humans to
study the interplay between gut function, blood endotoxin, and skeletal muscle
pro-inflammatory signaling and metabolic adaptability. We will employ a two-week lead-in
period, during which research participants will be fed prepared meals that are isocaloric to
their habitual diet, followed by five days of high saturated fat feeding. The high saturated
fat feeding period will consist of prepared meals that are isocaloric to habitual diet with a
macronutrient composition of 50% fat (45% of which will be saturated fat), 35% carbohydrate,
and 15% protein. Studying healthy, nonobese humans in this context is an innovative approach
on two levels: 1) any confounding influences associated with metabolic disease (obesity,
diabetes, or metabolic syndrome) are eliminated, e.g., insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia,
impaired gut function, pre-existing metabolic dysfunction and inflammatory tone; and 2) the
isocaloric feeding design negates the confounding influence of a positive energy balance and
allows us to specifically examine the effects of acutely increasing dietary saturated fat.