A Phase 1 interventional study of Insulin regular, 2.0-3.2 mU/m2/min (euinsulinemia) and Insulin regular, 32 mU/m2/min (hyperinsulinemia) in Insulin Resistance, Hyperinsulinemia and Obesity, sponsored by Columbia University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-16.
Sponsored by Columbia University · Phase 1, Interventional, and Basic science
The goal of this study is to learn about how the hormone insulin controls blood sugar in a variety of people. The main question it aims to answer is about how much insulin the body actually needs to maintain a normal blood sugar level. Participants will be asked to come in for a one-day study visit in which they will undergo a "graded insulin suppression test" ("GIST"). The GIST involves intravenous (into the vein) infusions of octreotide, a medication that turns off the body's own production of insulin, as well as replacement of insulin at two different levels (low and high), with or without replacement of glucagon, and glucose (sugar). The study investigators will check blood sugar levels every few minutes during the procedure to determine the effect of the two different insulin levels. This study will evaluate the GIST in both healthy volunteers and those at higher risk for type 2 diabetes.
This study aims to determine to what extent the hyperinsulinemia commonly associated with insulin resistance (IR) in those at risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a primary phenomenon, rather than merely a secondary, compensatory response to IR. The hypothesis is that some people with obesity and hyperinsulinemia exhibit a primary, non-compensatory hyperinsulinemia that may foment IR and its dysmetabolic sequelae. If this were the case, lowering insulin levels should not result in a proportional rise in blood glucose as might be expected if the hyperinsulinemia truly were purely compensatory. This hypothesis has been difficult to prove, however, because of the tight feedback mechanism between blood glucose and insulin secretion; under normal circumstances insulin secretion declines only alongside blood glucose. As such, an attempt to lower insulin levels independently of blood glucose will raise blood glucose and trigger further insulin secretion, negating the purpose of the experiment. In order to circumvent this feedback regulation of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, this study will adapt the existing insulin suppression test (IST) technique, which employs the somatostatin receptor ligand octreotide to suppress endogenous insulin secretion and then replaces insulin and dextrose exogenously as a measure of insulin action. In addition to employing the current standard hyperinsulinemic IST protocol to assess insulin sensitivity, this study will introduce a preceding, euinsulinemic step, in which insulin is lowered toward a healthy fasting serum insulin while assessing the resultant steady-state glucose, potentially with replacement of basal glucagon. The primary endpoints in this study are the steady-state plasma glucose and serum insulin levels during low- and high-dose insulin infusions meant to induce euinsulinemia and hyperinsulinemia, respectively. The study investigators will carefully monitor plasma glucose levels every 5-15 min, drawing from an indwelling peripheral IV catheter and performing the analysis using a dedicated bedside glucose analyzer. These glucose values will be used to detect and arrest any trends toward hypo or hyperglycemia and will also serve as the readout of the primary outcome - the euinsulinemic steady-state glucose (ESS-G) and hyperinsulinemic steady-state glucose (HSS-G). Serum insulin, C-peptide, and glucagon levels will be measured periodically during the procedure, but these results will not be available until several days later. The investigators will use these data to adjust the ESS-G and HSS-G data for differences in steady-state insulin levels by calculating the products of steady-state glucose and insulin: ESS-GxI and HSS-GxI. Finally, the investigators will assess the likelihood of primary hyperinsulinemia based on the GIST index: the ratio of the glucose x insulin product at euinsulinemic steady state relative to at baseline steady state (BSS), that is ESS-GxI / BSS-GxI.
2,969 studies on the registry are indexed under Insulin Resistance; 338 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 20 is below the median of 40 across 2,369 interventional studies indexed under Insulin Resistance.
Browse Insulin Resistance studies →Columbia University is the lead sponsor of 1,136 studies on the registry; 195 are open to participants now.
Of its 180 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 148 (82%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
Abnormal screening (or if on file, performed within previous 90 d):
History of having met any of the American Diabetes Association's definitions of prediabetic state during adulthood or diabetes mellitus (i.e., overt diabetes) at any time:
Use of most antidiabetic medications within the 30 days prior to screening
Known, documented history, at the time of screening, of any of the following medical conditions:
Advanced or severe liver disease, including but not limited to:
Gallstone disease, including:
Psychiatric diseases causing functional impairment that:
Other endocrinopathies:
Active , or hormonally active benign neoplasm, except allowances for:
Use of prescribed medications used for any of the indications in the preceding list of excluded conditions, or their use within 30 d prior to screening, except allowances for:
History of certain weight-loss (bariatric) surgery, including:
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.
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.
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.
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
A blood test of average blood sugar over the past two to three months, given as a percentage or in mmol/mol. 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or more is the usual threshold for diabetes, normally confirmed by a second test.
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.
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.
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.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
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).
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECG (electrocardiogram)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HbA1c
A blood test of average blood sugar over the past two to three months, given as a percentage or in mmol/mol. 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or more is the usual threshold for diabetes, normally confirmed by a second test.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Healthy volunteers with body mass index of 18-25 kg/m2, fasting serum insulin \< 10 mU/L, hemoglobin A1c \< 5.7%, and fasting plasma glucose \< 100 mg/dL
Drug: Insulin regular, 2.0-3.2 mU/m2/min (euinsulinemia) · Drug: Insulin regular, 32 mU/m2/min (hyperinsulinemia) · Drug: Octreotide Acetate, 6-45 ng/kg/min · Drug: Dextrose 20 % in Water · Drug: Glucagon, 0-0.5 ng/kg/min
Volunteers with body mass index of 30-45 kg/m2, fasting serum insulin \< 10 mU/L, hemoglobin A1c \< 5.7%, and fasting plasma glucose \< 100 mg/dL
Drug: Insulin regular, 2.0-3.2 mU/m2/min (euinsulinemia) · Drug: Insulin regular, 32 mU/m2/min (hyperinsulinemia) · Drug: Octreotide Acetate, 6-45 ng/kg/min · Drug: Dextrose 20 % in Water · Drug: Glucagon, 0-0.5 ng/kg/min
Volunteers with body mass index of 30-45 kg/m2, fasting serum insulin \>= 13 mU/L, hemoglobin A1c \< 5.7%, and fasting plasma glucose \< 100 mg/dL
Drug: Insulin regular, 2.0-3.2 mU/m2/min (euinsulinemia) · Drug: Insulin regular, 32 mU/m2/min (hyperinsulinemia) · Drug: Octreotide Acetate, 6-45 ng/kg/min · Drug: Dextrose 20 % in Water · Drug: Glucagon, 0-0.5 ng/kg/min
Insulin infusion to recapitulate euinsulinemia (normal basal insulin)
Insulin infusion to induce hyperinsulinemia for assessment of insulin sensitivity
Suppression of endogenous insulin secretion
Production of steady-state plasma glucose (SSPG) reflective of insulin sensitivity at hyperinsulinemia
Replacement of endogenous glucagon suppressed by octreotide. (Use is optional at the PI's discretion.)
Steady-state plasma glucose at euinsulinemia (ESS-G)
Plasma glucose level at steady state while insulin infusion rate is 2 mU/m2/min (units: mg/dL)
Time frame: 150-180 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state plasma glucose at hyperinsulinemia (HSS-G)
Plasma glucose level at steady state while insulin infusion rate is 32 mU/m2/min and glucose infusion rate is 267 mg/m2/min, reflective of insulin sensitivity (units: mg/dL)
Time frame: 270-300 minutes during GIST protocol
Product of steady-state glucose and insulin at euinsulinemia (ESS-G x I)
Product of plasma glucose and serum insulin levels while infusion rate is 2 mU/m2/min (units: mU/L x mg/dL)
Time frame: 150-180 minutes during GIST protocol
Product of steady-state glucose and insulin at hyperinsulinemia (HSS-G x I)
Product of plasma glucose and serum insulin levels while infusion rate is 32 mU/m2/min (units: mU/L x mg/dL)
Time frame: 270-300 minutes during GIST protocol
GIST index
Ratio of ESS-G x I to baseline steady state glucose x insulin product (BSS-G x I). Expect GIST index of approximately 1-2 in controls. GIST index below the control range suggests primary hyperinsulinemia, values within the control range for baseline-hyperinsulinemic subjects could be consistent either with mild insulin resistance or mixed primary + secondary hyperinsulinemia, and values above the control range are consistent with more significant insulin resistance (secondary hyperinsulinemia).
Time frame: 150-180 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state serum insulin at euinsulinemia (ESS-I)
Serum insulin level at steady state while insulin infusion rate is 2 mU/m2/min (units: mU/L)
Time frame: 150-180 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state serum insulin at hyperinsulinemia (HSS-I)
Serum insulin level at steady state while insulin infusion rate is 32 mU/m2/min and glucose infusion rate is 267 mg/m2/min (units: mU/L)
Time frame: 270-300 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state serum C-peptide level at euinsulinemia (ESS-C)
Serum C-peptide level while insulin infusion rate is 2 mU/m2/min (units: ng/mL)
Time frame: 180 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state serum C-peptide level at hyperinsulinemia (HSS-C)
Serum C-peptide level while insulin infusion rate is 32 mU/m2/min (units: ng/mL)
Time frame: 300 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state plasma glucagon level at euinsulinemia
Plasma glucagon level while insulin infusion rate is 2 mU/m2/min (units: ng/L)
Time frame: 180 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state plasma glucagon level at hyperinsulinemia
Plasma glucagon level while insulin infusion rate is 32 mU/m2/min (units: ng/L)
Time frame: 300 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state plasma free fatty acids (FFA) at euinsulinemia
Plasma FFA level while insulin infusion rate is 2 mU/m2/min (units: mmol/L)
Time frame: 150-180 minutes during GIST protocol
Steady-state plasma free fatty acids (FFA) at hyperinsulinemia
Plasma FFA level while insulin infusion rate is 32 mU/m2/min (units: mmol/L)
Time frame: 270-300 minutes during GIST protocol
Plan to share: Yes — Participant-level clinical data will be preserved by depositing the deidentified data to Dryad, a generalist repository that is participating in the NIH Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative. The repository will provide metadata, persistent identifiers, and long-term access for open and controlled access. Each study created in Dryad is assigned a digital object identifier (DOI). This data DOI will be referenced in the publication to allow the research community easy access to the exact data used in the publication. To protect research participants' privacy and confidentiality, data submitted to the repository will not include personally identifiable information such as names or addresses. Additional protections, such as the approach for managing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act identifiers, will be used for de-identification and to provide a limited data set to minimize the risk of participant reidentification.
Time frame: Scientific data will be shared as soon as possible. Scientific data included in published manuscripts will be available at the time of publication; all other generated scientific data will be shared no later than the end of the award. The study data will be stored in the repository for at least 5 years.
Access criteria: To request access of the data, researchers will use the standard processes at Dryad. Given that we seek the widest possible availability, in most cases all that is necessary is obtaining a Dryad account from the repository web site.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Glucose