Insulin Resistance and Intramyocellular Lipid Content in Glucose Intolerant Subjects Receiving Rosiglitazone

This protocol is a crossover study that will include subjects with an abnormal glucose tolerance test. Participants will be treated in a community-based practice setting and will receive detailed instruction on diet and glucose self-monitoring. The patients will be randomly assigned to treatment with 4 mg daily of Rosiglitazone or placebo. They will return to the clinic after 4 weeks to monitor changes in glucose levels, HbA1c and liver enzymes. The drug dose will be increased as indicated to 8 mg daily and the patients will be reevaluated every 4 weeks. The participants will all be admitted to the General Clinical Research Center at UT-Southwestern Medical Center at the end of 16 weeks to measure changes in the following primary endpoints: 1) insulin sensitivity, 2) lipid content of heart, liver, and skeletal muscle, 3) lipid oxidation. Additional noninvasive HMRS measurements will be made to quantify the muscle lipid content and respiratory gas exchange will be used to assess lipid oxidation. Following the GCRC admission, patients will switch to the alternative therapy for 16 additional weeks before the studies are repeated. We expect Rosiglitazone to improve insulin sensitivity in association with reduced muscle lipid content that may arise either from increased lipid oxidation or enhanced storage of fat in adipose tissue.