ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT02285985Updated Jul 22, 2024

Effects of Saxagliptin on Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Humans

A Phase 4 interventional study of Saxagliptin and Placebo in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), sponsored by Phoenix VA Health Care System. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 70 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-07-22.

Sponsored by Phoenix VA Health Care System · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 4 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Feb 2013, registered Jun 2014).
Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
103
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
21 Years to 70 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

In this research study, Investigators will be comparing the effects of a medication Saxagliptin versus placebo (a similar looking pill that contains no medication) on inflammation in the body.

Research Hypothesis DPP-4 inhibition by saxagliptin (ONGLYZA™) reduces adipose tissue inflammation in obese individuals and this is characterized by decreases in a) reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, b) toll-like receptors (TLR) and NF-kappa B pathway activation, c) expression of pro-inflammatory genes, d) macrophage infiltration, and e) secretion of pro-inflammatory factors.

Read the detailed description

This is a randomized, prospective, double-blind study. Randomization to Saxagliptin and placebo will be in a 2:1 fashion. Treatment duration will be approximately 6 weeks.

02

Conditions studied

  • Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM)

Keywords

  • Adipose tissue
  • Inflammation
  • .Obesity
03

In context

Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2

10,371 studies on the registry are indexed under Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; 1,406 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 103 is above the median of 80 across 8,350 interventional studies indexed under Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2.

Browse Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 studies →

Lead sponsor

Phoenix VA Health Care System is the lead sponsor of 9 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
21 Years to 70 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Signed Written

    1. Before any study procedures are performed, subjects will have the details of the study described to them, and they will be given a written informed consent document to read. Then, if subjects consent to participate in the study, they will indicate that consent by signing and dating the informed consent document in the presence of study personnel.
    2. Subjects must be able to communicate meaningfully with the investigator and legally competent to provide informed written consent.
  2. Target Population

    1. 27.5-37.5 kg/m2
    2. Stable body weight (not varying >10% during the last 6 months)
  3. Age and Reproductive Status

    1. Men and women, ages 21 to 70 years.
    2. Women must be sterilized by hysterectomy or or on acceptable if of .
    3. Women of childbearing potential (WOCBP) include any female who has experienced menarche and who has not undergone successful surgical sterilization (hysterectomy, bilateral tubal ligation, or bilateral oophorectomy) or is not postmenopausal. Post menopause is defined as:

      • Amenorrhea ≥12 consecutive months without another cause and a documented serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) level >35 mIU/mL, or
      • Women with irregular menstrual periods and a documented serum FSH level >35 mIU/mL, or NOTE: FSH level testing is not required for women ≥62 years old with amenorrhea of ≥1 year
      • Women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Women who are using oral contraceptives, other hormonal contraceptives (vaginal products, skin patches, or implanted or injectable products), or mechanical products such as an intrauterine device or barrier methods (diaphragm, condoms, spermicides) to prevent pregnancy, or are practicing abstinence or where their partner is sterile (e.g., vasectomy) should be considered to be of childbearing potential.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Sex and Reproductive Status

    1. who are unwilling or unable to use an acceptable method to avoid pregnancy for the entire study period
    2. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding
  2. Target Disease Exceptions

    1. Gastrointestinal disease (including gastrectomy, chronic pancreatitis, bariatric surgery and gastroparesis)
    2. Hepatic disease (, AST >2.5 times the , high sensitivity CRP ≥1 mg/L)
    3. Kidney disease (serum creatinine >1.6 mg/dl, 50 mL/min)
    4. Hypertension (blood pressure > 150/95 mmHg) at Screening for the mean of three consecutive readings performed in a sitting position after a 5-minute resting period. If treatment for hypertension has recently been initiated, subjects must be clinically stable for 4 weeks prior to Screening
    5. Cardiac disease (myocardial infarction within past year, arrhythmia, unstable angina, congestive heart failure, or coronary artery bypass surgery within 1 year or expected to require coronary bypass surgery within 12 months of study entry).
  3. Medical History and Concurrent Diseases

    1. Type 1 diabetes mellitus
    2. Type 2 diabetes mellitus
    3. History of diabetic ketoacidosis or hyperosmolar nonketotic coma
    4. other than basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer
    5. Significant clinical allergic rhinitis or asthma, regularly requiring inhaled and/or antihistamines
  4. Additional Laboratory Test Findings

    1. \<12 g/dl in men, \<11 g/dl in women
    2. Abnormal prothrombin or
    3. Clinically abnormal thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)
    4. 2 hour glucose > 170mg/dl in standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
  5. Allergies and Adverse Drug Reactions

    a. Subjects with a history of a serious reaction to saxagliptin, such as anaphylaxis, angioedema,or exfoliative skin conditions.

  6. Prohibited Treatments and/or Therapies

    1. Treatment with strong systemic cytochrome P450 3A4/5 (CYP 3A4/5) inhibitors
    2. Treatment with any of the following medications during screening or their expected use during the study: recent systemic glucocorticoids (for more than 2 weeks), any anti-hyperglycemic agents, antineoplastic agents, transplant medications, drugs for weight loss, niacin, fibrates, or anti-retroviral medications
    3. Treatment with beta-blockers, antihistamines or inhaled corticosteroids within 3 months prior to screening
    4. Start or change of hormonal replacement therapy within 3 months prior to screening
  7. Other Exclusion Criteria

    1. Prisoners, or subjects who are involuntarily incarcerated
    2. Subjects who are compulsorily detained for treatment of either a psychiatric or physical (e.g., infectious disease) illness
    3. Currently abusing alcohol or drugs, or have a history of alcohol or drug abuse that in the investigator's opinion could cause the subject to be non-compliant; or have a general history of non-compliance with medications
    4. Any acute febrile illness within 2 weeks of screening with a temperature 100°F
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(14)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

Postmenopausal

Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Investigator)
Enrollment
103 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Saxagliptin

    Saxagliptin (trade-name ONGLYZA™) is used along with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar levels in patients with Type II diabetes (condition in which blood sugar is too high because the body does not produce or use insulin normally). Saxagliptin is in a class of medications called dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors. It works by increasing the amount of insulin produced by the body after meals when blood sugar is high As the blood sugar returns towards normal, the medication effect on insulin is decreased.

    Drug: Saxagliptin

  • Placebo comparator
    Placebo

    Sugar pill

    Drug: Placebo

Interventions

  • Tablets: 5 mg

    Also known as: ONGLYZA™, Inhibitor

  • DrugPlacebo

    Tablets: 5mg

    Also known as: Sugar pill

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change from baseline in the secretion of cytokines/adipokines by adipose tissue

    The primary objective is to determine whether 6 weeks of treatment with saxagliptin, compared to placebo, causes a reduction from baseline in the production and secretion of cytokines/adipokines by adipose tissue

    Time frame: 6 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. reduction from baseline in tissue measures of inflammation

    The secondary objective is to determine whether 6 weeks of treatment with saxagliptin, compared to placebo, causes a reduction from baseline in reactive oxygen production, pro-inflammatory gene expression, toll-like receptor and nuclear factor-kappa B activation, and macrophage infiltration in adipose tissue of obese individuals

    Time frame: 6 weeks

  2. change in plasma postprandial lipids

    We will also compare the change in postprandial lipids following a standard meal between placebo and saxagliptin

    Time frame: 6 weeks

  3. change in reactive hyperemic index

    We will use peripheral artery tonometry to measure the change in endothelial function by measuring reactive hyperemic index

    Time frame: 6 weeks

Other outcomes

  1. change in percent arteriole dilation

    Using arterioles isolated from tissue biopsies, we will measure dose related responses to distinct dilators

    Time frame: 6 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Hospital
    Phoenix, Arizona 85012, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Kim SH, Liu A, Ariel D, Abbasi F, Lamendola C, Grove K, Tomasso V, Ochoa H, Reaven G. Effect of salsalate on insulin action, secretion, and clearance in nondiabetic, insulin-resistant individuals: a randomized, placebo-controlled study. Diabetes Care. 2014 Jul;37(7):1944-50. doi: 10.2337/dc13-2977. PubMed 24963111 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Subject to VA regulation.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 22, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02285985
Lead sponsor
Phoenix VA Health Care System
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 7, 2014
Start date
Feb 2013
Primary completion
Oct 12, 2019
Completion
Oct 12, 2019
Last update
Jul 22, 2024

Study contacts

Peter D Reaven, MD
principal investigator · Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Saxagliptin

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