Table 1.

Characteristics of the study subjects

	Lean	Obese	Massive
Study 1 (dexamethasone)
Subjects (F/M), n	10 (6/4)	10 (6/4)	10 (7/3)
Age, years	32.5 ± 2.6	36.2 ± 1.8	43.6 ± 2.7b
BMI	21.0 ± 0.9	38.0 ± 1.1	53 ± 4.3
Fasting plasma glucose, mg/dl	91.3 ± 3.8	101 ± 3.8a	92.7 ± 6.8
Cortisol nadir, μg/dl	1.7 ± 0.3	1.5 ± 0.2	1.2 ± 0.2
Study 2 (insulin)
Subjects (F/M), n	17 (9/8)	18 (11/7)	14 (9/5)
Age, years	36.3 ± 1.4	39.3 ± 2.5	39.4 ± 1.5
BMI	21.7 ± 0.4	31.8 ± 0.8	49.1 ± 3.1
Fasting plasma glucose, mg/dl	86.2 ± 2.1	92.1 ± 2.9	99.4 ± 2.3c, d

The subjects in study 1 and study 2 were not the same individuals; the two studies were conducted on two different populations of lean, obese, and massively obese subjects.

^ap = 0.02 vs. lean subjects;

^bp < 0.01 vs. lean or obese subjects;

^cp < 0.001 vs. lean subjects;

^dp = 0.02 vs. obese subjects.