Hypoglycemic effects of intraluminal intestinal electrical stimulation in healthy volunteers

Background: Intestinal electrical stimulation (IES) has been shown to delay gastric emptying and reduce nutrient absorption in humans. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of IES using an intraluminal method on postprandial blood glucose. Methods: An oral glucose tolerance test with 150 g of glucose was performed in 10 healthy volunteers with and without IES (13 pulses/min, 300 ms and 5 mA). An intraluminal catheter with a pair of ring electrodes was incubated into the duodenum under endoscopy and used for IES. Gastric emptying was performed simultaneously using an established ultrasonic technique. Results: (1) IES significantly decreased the postprandial glucose level from 15 min to 90 min after the glucose load. (2) The serum insulin level at 30 min but not other times after the meal was lower in the IES session than that in the control session (p∈=∈0.06). (3) The half-time of gastric emptying with IES was increased from 27∈±∈4.8 min in the control session to 36∈±∈8.5 min with IES (p∈<∈0. 01). (4) The symptoms score of dyspepsia were almost the same between the two sessions except that IES induced a slightly higher nausea symptom score. Conclusions: IES decreases postprandial blood glucose possibly by delaying gastric emptying and other unknown mechanisms and the intraluminal method of IES may serve as an excellent screening and research tool for various applications of IES. Further clinical studies are needed to explore therapeutic potentials of IES for diabetes.