Clinical Research Directory

Effects of Meal Macronutrients on Postprandial Lipids

Background: Abnormal fats in the blood can lead to many problems, including heart disease. Researchers want to learn more about how eating meals with different levels of nutrients affects fats in the blood. Specifically, they want to study people with too much body fat, too little body fat, and a kidney problem called nephrotic syndrome. Objective: To learn more about how different types of foods affect fat levels in the blood. Eligibility: People aged 18 years or older with a health condition that affects how their body handles fats. Healthy volunteers are also needed. Design: Participants will have 2 overnight stays in the clinic within 6 months. At each visit, after staying overnight, they will eat a breakfast casserole. At 1 visit, breakfast will be a high-fat, low carbohydrate meal. At the other, it will be a high-carbohydrate, low-fat meal. Participants will have a tube inserted into a vein in their arm. They will have blood drawn via the tube 12 times in 8 hours: 2 times before they eat the breakfast and 10 times after. Participants will have other tests during their stays: * A resting metabolic test captures the air they exhale and measures how much energy they use at rest. * A dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan measures how much fat and muscle they have. * A Fibroscan is a special type of ultrasound of the liver. * A body surface scan uses lasers to measure the total area of the body. * A bioelectric impedance (BIS) exam measures how fast small electric currents move through their body. Participants may opt to have a third visit. At this visit, the breakfast will be high in protein....

Compassionate Use of Metreleptin in Previously Treated People With Partial Lipodystrophy

Background: \- Partial lipodystrophy can cause high blood fat levels and resistance to insulin. This can lead to health problems including diabetes. Researchers have found that the drug metreleptin improves health in people with this disease. Objective: \- To test the safety and effectiveness of metreleptin. Eligibility: * People age 6 months and older with partial lipodystrophy who * have received metreleptin through NIH studies and shown improvement AND * cannot get metreleptin other ways. Design: * Participants will come to NIH approximately every 6 months during year one, then every 1 2 years. Financial assistance may be available for travel within the U.S. * At visits, participants will get a supply of metreleptin to take home for daily injections, or it can be shipped to them inside the U.S. They will have: * plastic catheter placed in an arm vein. * blood tests, urine collection, and physical exam. * oral glucose tolerance test, drinking a sweet liquid. * ultrasound of the heart, liver, uterus, and ovaries. A gel and a probe are placed on the skin and pictures are taken of the organs. * echocardiogram, which takes pictures of the heart with sound waves. * Resting Metabolic Rate taken. A plastic hood is worn over the head while the oxygen they breathe is measured. * Participants will have up to 3 DEXA scan x-rays per year. * Participants may have: * annual bone x-rays. * liver biopsies every few years. A needle will be inserted into the liver to obtain a small piece. Participants will sign a separate consent for this. * Participants must be seen regularly by their local doctors and have blood tests at least every 3-6 months at home.

Compassionate Use of Metreleptin in Previously Treated People With Generalized Lipodystrophy

Background: \- Generalized lipodystrophy can cause high blood fat levels and resistance to insulin. This can lead to health problems including diabetes. Researchers have found that the drug metreleptin improves health in people with this disease. Objective: \- To test the safety and effectiveness of metreleptin. Eligibility: * People ages 6 months and older with generalized lipodystrophy who: * have received metreleptin through NIH studies AND * cannot get it through approved or compassionate use mechanisms in their home country. Design: * Participants will come to NIH approximately every 6 months during year one, then every 1 2 years. Financial assistance may be available for travel within the U.S. * At visits, participants will get a supply of metreleptin to take home for daily injections. They will have: * plastic catheter placed in an arm vein. * blood tests, urine collection, and physical exam. * oral glucose tolerance test, drinking a sweet liquid. * ultrasound of the heart, liver, uterus, and ovaries. A gel and a probe are placed on the skin and pictures are taken of the organs. * echocardiogram, which takes pictures of the heart with sound waves. * Resting Metabolic Rate taken. A plastic hood is worn over the head while the oxygen they breathe is measured. * Participants will have up to 3 DEXA scan x-rays per year. * Participants may have: * annual bone x-rays. * liver biopsies every few years. A needle will be inserted into the liver to obtain a small piece. Participants will sign a separate consent for this. * Participants must be seen regularly by their local doctors and have blood tests at least every 3 6 months at home.

Natural History of Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes in Metreleptin-Treated vs Untreated Subjects With Lipodystrophy

Background: Lipodystrophy is a health problem in which the body does not have enough fat tissue. People with lipodystrophy may not make enough of the hormone leptin. Leptin regulates hunger. Low leptin levels trigger hunger. People with lipodystrophy can have many health problems. They may take a drug (metreleptin) that mimics leptin. Little is known about how taking metreleptin may affect a pregnancy. Metreleptin may be helpful or harmful to pregnant women. It may also affect the health of the child who is born. Objective: This natural history study will collect data about the effects of taking metreleptin while pregnant. Eligibility: Women aged 18 years or older with lipodystrophy who have been pregnant. Women who did and who did not take metreleptin during their pregnancies are needed. Children of women with lipodystrophy who took this drug during pregnancy are also needed. Design: Participants will have 1 study visit. This visit may be by phone, by telehealth, or in-person. Participants will answer questions about their pregnancies. They will discuss any health problems they had. They will be asked about any medicines they took before and during their pregnancies. They will be asked about the health of their children. Participants medical records will be reviewed. Participants may need to provide a blood sample. They may also be asked to provide a sample of breastmilk. Participants children may also be asked to provide a blood sample....

Feasibility of Adipose Tissue Triglyceride (TG) Labelling in Familial Partial Lipodystrophy (FPLD)

Background: People with familial partial lipodystrophy (FPLD) do not store fat in the body normally. This can lead to serious illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. To learn more about FPLD, researchers want to compare the fat tissue in people with this disease to the fat tissue of healthy people. Objective: To collect and analyze samples of fat tissue in people with and without FPLD. Eligibility: People aged 18 to 65 years with FPLD. Healthy adults are also needed. Design: Participants will be screened. They will have a physical exam. The size and shape of their body will be measured. They will have an imaging scan to measure their bones, muscle, and fat. Participants will be given heavy water to drink at home. The water contains a tracer to help measure the fat in their blood. They will drink 1 vial 3 times a day. After drinking the water for 9 days, participants will come to the clinic for a 3-day stay. They will eat only foods provided by the hospital; the foods will contain tracers. A needle will be inserted into a vein in the arm; participants will receive infusions of other tracers through this needle into their blood; this needle will also be used to draw blood samples for testing. On their third day in the clinic, participants will have biopsies: Small samples of fat will be removed from under the skin on the belly and thigh. Participants may return for a follow-up visit 8 days after leaving the clinic. Blood draws and fat tissue biopsies will be repeated.

Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in obEsity: an endocRine trAnslational socioLogic Evaluation, "SIDERALE"

Obesity is a life-threatening disease, defined by excessive fat accumulation that increases the risk of other diseases such as cardiovascular events, hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Obesity is also a risk factor for nosocomial infections and is associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes, although anthropometric measurements are not routinely recorded during hospitalization and lack of a registry data does not allow performing retrospective studies.Obesity is closely related to chronodisruption, characterized by deregulation of physiological and behavioral central and peripheral circadian rhythms contributing to the obesity-related metabolic impairment. Eating and sleeping time schedules are relevant synchronizers of humans' biological clock. Several studies suggest a role of dietary interventions in rewiring the circadian rhythm, with Mediterranean diet (MD) regulating nutritional patterns. Moreover, considering its positive impact on sleep quality, melatonin intake was suggested as a potential regulator of circadian rhythms. The relation between chronodisruption, obesity and infections has not been investigated, and a first proof of concept (Pilot study) will aim at investigating it. Three cohorts of obese patients with different aetiology (essential obesity, obesity with type 2 diabetes, genetic forms of obesity) and a cohort of lipodystrophic patients will be enrolled in the study, which is designed as a two-phases protocol. During the first phase (0-12 weeks (w)) patients will be subjected to dietary intervention with hypocaloric MD; in a second phase (12-24w), melatonin 1mg/die before sleep will be added to the hypocaloric MD. The susceptibility to infections will be investigated through the evaluation of 1) the number of events - i.e. flu- or flulike syndromes, skin, respiratory, digestive, urinary infections-per patient of the 4 groups and the blood assays to detect the infection with Epstein-Barr, Cytomegalovirus, Varicella, Measles and SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM; hepatitis C and hepatitis B core antibodies and Quantiferon TB Gold, 2) the clock genes rhythm and TLRs expression in patient immune cells at baseline, 12w and 24w.The mutual relationship between biomedical values, environmental and social conditions, and lifestyle habits will be evaluated by structured questionnaires. Validation of questionnaires to explore the susceptibility to infections is another delivery planned for the current study.

Low Energy Diet and Familial Partial Lipodystrophy

To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and metabolic impact of a low energy diet (LED) in people with familial partial lipodystrophy and diabetes. Participants will be provided with a LED (total diet replacement) for 12 weeks, before the introduction of a stepped food transition. Metabolic effects will continue to be assessed for 1 year. In order to better understand why this intervention changes insulin sensitivity, we will also collect adipose and muscle tissue samples at baseline and 12 weeks into the intervention in participants willing to have these procedures performed. These samples will be used for histological, metabolite, gene expression and protein expression analyses.

Assess the Possibility of Diagnosing Diabetes and Rediabetes Following Oral Induced Hyperglycemia in Patients With Dunnigan's Partial Familial Lipodystrophy by Replacing 75 g of Glucose With a Standardized Carbohydrate Breakfast and Continuous Interstitial Monitoring Glucose)

Dunnigan's syndrome is a partial familial lipodystrophy due to a mutation in the Lamine A LMNA gene. This very rare syndrome is 20 times more common in Réunion compared to the rest of Europe with several families suffering from a unique variant of LMNA, the p.(Thr655Asnfs\*49) variant known as the "Reunion variant", the appearance of which in Reunion dates back to the 17th century. This variant is expressed in homozygous and heterozygous form and has only been identified in subjects from Reunion. Clinically, patients with Dunnigan's have an absence of subcutaneous fatty tissue which mainly affects the lower part of the body and leads to severe insulin resistance responsible for early diabetes. To detect these metabolic complications as early as possible, an annual follow-up of the subjects is recommended with the performance of an OGTT test annually in non-diabetic subjects. This problem is identical for patients with cystic fibrosis leading to the same recommendation. However, whether in our experience of monitoring patients with Dunningan's lipodystrophy, in subjects at risk of diabetes or in subjects with cystic fibrosis, the OGTT test and even more so its repetition is poorly accepted, which can lead to lack of patient follow-up. An alternative solution to the OGTT is therefore justified. In the literature, different avenues have been explored. First, given oral glucose intolerance, replacement with a standardized breakfast has been explored in several studies. Another alternative tested in the population of subjects with cystic fibrosis is the use of an interstitial glucose sensor for screening for carbohydrate abnormalities. In view of the literature, we formulate several hypotheses that will be tested in our study: 1. The intake of a standardized breakfast containing 75g of carbohydrates is comparable to the ingestion of 75g of glucose on the result of the OGTT test at 120 min for the diagnosis of carbohydrate abnormalities (diabetes and prediabetes) in patients with Dunnigan's lipodystrophy. 2. The continuous recording of interstitial glycaemia over several days allows the diagnosis of glucidic abnormalities equivalent to the classic OGTT in this population; possibly by identifying glycemic variations not seen by a single OGTT test. Thus the installation of an interstitial sensor over several days could be an alternative to the realization of the OGTT in the identification of carbohydrate disorders in patients with Dunnigan's lipodystrophy. 3. There will be a similar profile but a time lag between venous glycemic curves and interstitial blood glucose measurements after OGTT. 4. Replacing the oral glucose load of the classic OGTT (gold standard) with a standardized carbohydrate breakfast leads to similar interstitial glycaemia curves but with a time lag.