Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery improves hepatic glucose metabolism and reduces plasma kisspeptin levels in morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) is known to improve whole-body glucose metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), although the mechanisms are not entirely clear and are likely multifactorial. The aim of this study was to assess fasting hepatic glucose metabolism and other markers of metabolic activity before and after RYGB in patients with and without T2D. Methods: Metabolic characteristics of patients who are obese with T2D were compared with those without the disease (non-T2D) before and 1 and 6 mo after RYGB. Fasting plasma insulin and the insulin:glucagon ratio were markedly reduced as early as 1 mo after RYGB in both patients with T2D and without T2D. Despite this reduction, endogenous glucose production and fasting plasma glucose levels were lower in both groups after RYGB, with the reductions being much larger in T2D. Plasma kisspeptin, an inhibitor of insulin secretion, was reduced only in T2D after surgery. Improved hepatic glucose metabolism and lower plasma kisspeptin in T2D after RYGB may link improved hepatic function with enhanced insulin responsiveness after surgery. Our manuscript is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to present data showing that Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery (RYGB) lowers fasting kisspeptin levels in patients who are obese with type 2 diabetes. This lowering of kisspeptin is important because it could link improvements in liver glucose metabolism after RYGB with increased insulin responsiveness also seen after surgery.