Effects of Metformin on the Regulation of Free Fatty Acids in Insulin Resistance: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Table 1

Characteristics of patients included in the metformin and the placebo groups at baseline and six weeks after treatment. Data are given as mean (SEM) unless stated otherwise.

	Metformin (𝑁=10)		Placebo (𝑁=9)
	Untreated	Treated	Untreated	Treated
Gender (M/F)	5/5	—	5/4	—
Age (years)	49 (3)	—	53 (3)	—
BMI (kg/m^2)	32.0 (1.4)	32.0 (1.4)	30.4 (1.4)	30.3 (1.4)
WHR	1.03 (0.02)	1.02 (0.02)	0.96 (0.03)	0.95 (0.03)
Systolic BP (mmHg)	137 (4)	132 (4)	143 (7)	139 (4)
Diastolic BP (mmHg)	88 (3)	87 (3)	90 (4)	86 (5)
Fasting FFA (mmol/L)	0.61 (0.08)	0.44 (0.06)^#	0.58 (0.07)	0.55 (0.07)
Total cholesterol (mmol/L)	5.4 (0.5)	4.8 (0.4)^$	5.8 (0.5)	5.4 (0.4)
HDL cholesterol (mmol/L)	1.12 (0.11)	1.14 (0.07)	1.22 (0.17)	1.21 (0.16)
Plasma triglycerides (mmol/L)	1.91 (0.30)	1.69 (0.30)	2.04 (0.36)	2.08 (0.36)
Apo A1 (mg/L)	1.27 (0.09)	1.17 (0.04)	1.36 (0.10)	1.22 (0.10)
Apo B (mg/L)	1.05 (0.11)	0.91 (0.09)	1.05 (0.10)	1.04 (0.10)
Fasting plasma insulin (mE/L)	19.2 (5.2)	18.2 (6.7)	14.4 (3.2)	14.3 (2.5)
Fasting plasma glucose (mmol/L)	8.4 (1.0)	6.8 (0.5)*	7.1 (1.1)	7.1 (0.7)
HOMA-IR	6.4 (2.6)	5.4 (2.4)*	4.4 (1.0)	4.4 (0.8)
GlyHb (%)	6.8 (0.4)	6.4 (0.3)^&	6.0 (0.4)	6.3 (0.3)

^#𝑃=0.06; ^∗𝑃=0.07; ^&𝑃=0.08; ^$𝑃=0.05.
Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index; WHR: waist-to-hip ratio; BP: blood pressure; FFA: free fatty acid; Apo: apolipoprotein; HOMA-IR: homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance.