Objectives: Lipodystrophy and insulin resistance are prevalent among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients on combined antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Aiming to provide a detailed description of the metabolic adverse effects of HIV-lipodystrophy, we investigated several aspects of glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism and b-cell function in lipodystrophic HIV-infected patients. Methods: [3-3 H]glucose was applied during euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamps in association with indirect calorimetry in 43 normoglycaemic HIV-infected patients (18 lipodystrophic patients on HAART (LIPO), 18 patients without lipodystrophy on HAART (NONLIPO) and seven patients who were naïve to antiretroviral therapy (NAÏVE) respectively). b-cell function was evaluated by an intravenous glucose tolerance test. Results: Compared with NONLIPO and NAÏVE separately, LIPO displayed markedly reduced ratio of limb to trunk fat (RLF; . 34%, P , 0.001), hepatic insulin sensitivity (. 40%, P , 0.03), incremental glucose disposal (. 50%, P , 0.001) and incremental exogenous glucose storage (. 50%, P , 0.05). Furthermore, LIPO displayed reduced incremental glucose oxidation (P , 0.01), increased clamp free fatty acids (P , 0.05) and attenuated insulin-mediated suppression of lipid oxidation (P , 0.05) compared with NONLIPO. In combined study groups, RLF correlated with hepatic insulin sensitivity (r ¼ 0.69), incremental glucose disposal (r ¼ 0.71) and incremental exogenous glucose storage (r ¼ 0.40), all P , 0.01. Disposition index (i.e. first-phase insulin response to intravenous glucose multiplied by incremental glucose disposal) was reduced by 46% (P ¼ 0.05) in LIPO compared with the combined groups of NONLIPO and NAÏVE, indicating an impaired adaptation of b-cell function to insulin resistance in LIPO. Conclusion: Our data suggest that normoglycaemic lipodystrophic HIV-infected patients display impaired glucose and lipid metabolism in multiple pathways involving liver, muscle tissue and b-cell function.