Intramuscular lipid metabolism during walking and acipimox ingestion
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Can brisk walking combined with ingestion of a lipid-lowering drug improve fat metabolism in muscle?
IRAS ID
249734
Contact name
Sam Shepherd
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The accumulation of fat in skeletal muscle is linked with insulin resistance in obesity and T2D. However, fat also accumulates in the muscle of lean, healthy people, but they remain insulin sensitive. This is because healthy people are able to burn this fat to generate energy during exercise. However, overweight/obese inactive people can’t use muscle fat during exercise in the same manner, which is related to the high blood lipid concentrations that are observed in these individuals.
Acipimox is a lipid-lowering agent that specifically reduces the breakdown of fat in adipose tissue and has been shown improve the blood lipid profile of obese individuals and T2D patients, at least in the short-term (1-2 weeks). Our previous research has shown that the combination of Acipimox with exercise restores the ability of obese people to burn fat during moderate-intensity cycling exercise. We now want to test whether Acipimox also increases the ability to burn muscle fat during low-intensity walking in people with prediabetes. If it does, then the next step will be to test whether the combination of Acipimox and walking can lead to improved insulin sensitivity and reduced T2D risk over a longer intervention programme.12 people with prediabetes will be recruited to undertake two experimental trials in a randomised order. Each trial will involve walking for 45 minutes on a treadmill, with muscle biopsies obtained from the thigh before (basal), immediately following (post-exercise) and 3 h post-exercise. Each trial will be identical, except that participants will ingest either Acipimox or a placebo in a double-blind design. Muscle biopsies will be used to examine differences in muscle fat between the two trials.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0250
Date of REC Opinion
24 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion