Effect of High Fat Diet on Muscle Metabolism

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Diabetes

In brief

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.

Key facts

Study ID: NCT02328235
Run by: Kevin Davy
People needed: 11
Starts: 2013-01-01
Expected to finish: 2018-03-09
Last updated by the study team: 2026-04-13

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 40. Sex: male. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

Males, age 18-40 years; BMI between 20 and 30 kg/m2. Weight stable for previous 6 months (± 2.0kg).
Sedentary to recreationally active (≤ 3 days, 20 min/day of walking type exercise, no planned exercise other than leisure walking for transportation purposes).
Verbal and written informed consent
non-smoking
Approved for participation by Medical Director (Jose Rivero, M.D.)

You may not qualify if…

1. Past or current ischemic heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, endocrine or metabolic disease, neurological disease, or hematological-oncological disease
Family history of diabetes
BMI > 30 kg/m2, blood pressure > 140/90 mmHg or antihypertensive medications, fasting glucose > 100 mg/dl, LDL cholesterol > 130 mg/dl, total cholesterol > 200 mg/dl, triglycerides > 250 mg/dl.
Verbal and written informed consent
Smoking, alcohol consumption > 2 servings/d, or taking medications (including but not limited to statins or other drugs with anti-inflammatory actions) or antioxidant vitamins or supplements, or know to affect carbohydrate or lipid metabolism.
Total daily dietary fat consumption ≥ 35% and/or saturated fat consumption of ≥ 15%.

Where it is running

Virginia Polytechnic and State University — Blacksburg, Virginia, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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