Glycemic/metabolic responses to identical meal tolerance tests at breakfast, lunch and dinner in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor and the effects of adding a mitiglinide/voglibose fixed-dose combination.

Background: The effects of the mitiglinide/voglibose fixed-dose combination on postprandial glycemic/metabolic responses in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) treated with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors are unknown.

Methods: Twelve T2DM patients treated with a DPP-4 inhibitor underwent identical meal tolerance tests (MTTs) at breakfast, lunch and dinner, before and 2 - 3 weeks after treatment with a fixed-dose combination of mitiglinide 10 mg and voglibose 0.2 mg (combination). Patients were randomized in a cross-over fashion to administer the combination either three-times-daily before each meal or twice-daily before breakfast and dinner. Glycemic/metabolic responses were evaluated at 0, 30, 60 and 120 min in each MTT.

Results: Three-times-daily administration of the combination significantly suppressed postprandial hyperglycemia after each meal, particularly after lunch and dinner. Active glucagon-like peptide-1 levels increased significantly after each meal, as did early-phase insulin secretion without excessive insulin secretion. Postprandial hyperglycemia after lunch was significantly greater after twice-daily than three-times-daily administration, but there were no clinically relevant differences in other metabolic responses.

Conclusions: This study revealed that adding the mitiglinide/voglibose combination to a DPP-4 inhibitor elicited additive improvements in postprandial glycemic/metabolic responses assessed using MTTs at breakfast, lunch and dinner with identical meal compositions.