OBJECTIVE -Although exercise is recommended as a cornerstone of treatment for type 2 diabetes, it is often poorly adopted by patients. We have noted that even in the absence of apparent cardiovascular disease, persons with type 2 diabetes have an impaired ability to carry out maximal exercise, and the impairment is correlated with insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction. We hypothesized that administration of a thiazolidinedione (TZD) agent would improve exercise capacity in type 2 diabetes.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -Twenty participants with uncomplicated type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned in a double-blind study to receive either 4 mg/day of rosiglitazone or matching placebo after baseline measurements to assess endothelial function (brachial artery diameter by brachial ultrasound), maximal oxygen consumption (V O 2max ), oxygen uptake (V O 2 ) kinetics, and insulin sensitivity by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. Measurements were reassessed after 4 months of treatment.RESULTS -Participant groups did not differ at baseline in any measure. Rosiglitazonetreated participants (n ϭ 10) had significantly improvedbefore rosiglitazone vs. 21.2 Ϯ 5.1 ml ⅐ kg Ϫ1 ⅐ min Ϫ1 after rosiglitazone, P Ͻ 0.01), insulin sensitivity, and endothelial function. A change in V O 2max correlated with improved insulin sensitivity measured by clamp (r ϭ 0.68, P Ͻ 0.05) and with improved brachial artery diameter (r ϭ 0.70, P Ͻ 0.05). Placebo-treated participants (n ϭ 10) showed no changes inCONCLUSIONS -This is the first known report showing that a TZD improved exercise function in type 2 diabetes. Whether this is due to the observed improvements in insulin sensitivity and/or endothelial function or to another action of the TZD class requires further exploration.
Diabetes Care 28:2877-2883, 2005E ven in the absence of cardiovascular disease, persons with type 2 diabetes have an impaired ability to carry out maximal exercise in that maximal oxygen consumption (V O 2max ) is reduced by ϳ20% compared with that in control subjects similar in terms of age and physical activity level (1-3). In addition, oxygen consumption (V O 2 ) at submaximal workloads is reduced during graded exercise in type 2 diabetes compared with that in healthy control subjects as has previously been observed in disease states with impaired oxygen delivery (1,4). Also, V O 2 kinetics are slowed during constant load exercise in type 2 diabetes (5). Thus, there are many exercise abnormalities associated with type 2 diabetes.The relationship between exercise capacity and insulin resistance is of interest because the association between higher levels of physical activity/exercise training status and improved insulin sensitivity is well established (6 -8). Conversely, decreased habitual physical activity is known to be associated with poorer diabetic status (9). Population studies reveal a direct correlation between all-cause mortality and reduced fitness in persons with and without type 2 diabetes (10,11). Previous work from our group and others demonstrates a...