Clinical Fellowship

Institution:

Bristol Royal Infirmary

Recipient:

Dr Mimi Chen

Project:

Bariatric surgery for diabetes: Does the GLP1 or GIP response predict who will respond?

Summary:

Weight loss (bariatric) surgery is successful at inducing and maintaining a significant reduction in weight, for this reason it has become a popular way of treating severely obese individuals. These operations have also been found to improve and, in some cases, cure type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and thus many doctors now suggest that this should become a standard treatment for T2DM associated with severe obesity. However, we cannot predict who will do well due to a huge variation in response of diabetes to surgery, even if similar amounts of weight are lost.

This project aims to identify whether gut hormones, known to improve the body’s response to insulin, could influence the surgical outcome in overweight patients with T2DM. Before surgery, we will look at changes in gut hormones in response to a meal to see if this predicts who will respond best to surgery and whether this is a result of a greater improvement in the way insulin works or the amount of insulin released by the body.

If gut hormone responsiveness was found to predict who was likely to do well with surgery, this would enable doctors to ensure that people who would benefit the most were offered surgery.

Amount:

£165,000 (three years)