Search results for " fatty liver"

GSK-3 in liver diseases: Friend or foe?

2020

Liver diseases, including hepatitis due to hepatitis B or C virus infection, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma pose major challenges for overall health due to limited curative treatment options. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of these diseases. A better understanding of the signaling pathways involved in the pathogenesis of liver diseases can help to improve the efficacy of emerging therapies, mainly based on pharmacological approaches, which influence one or more specific molecules involved in key signal transduction pathways. These emerging therapies are very promising for the prevention and treatment of …

Fasting inhibits hepatic stellate cells activation and potentiates anti-cancer activity of Sorafenib in hepatocellular cancer cells

2017

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has a poor outcome. Most HCCs develop in the context of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis caused by chronic inflammation. Short-term fasting approaches enhance the activity of chemotherapy in preclinical cancer models, other than HCC. Multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor Sorafenib is the mainstay of treatment in HCC. However, its benefit is frequently short-lived. Whether fasting can alleviate liver fibrosis and whether combining fasting with Sorafenib is beneficial remains unknown. METHODS: 24 hour fasting (2% serum, 0.1% glucose)-induced changes on human hepatic stellate cells (HSC) LX-2 proliferation/viability/cell cycle were assessed by MTT and flow cyto…

Insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism drive steatosis and fibrosis risk in young females with PCOS

2017

Background and aims Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) recognize obesity and insulin resistance (IR) as common pathogenic background. We assessed 1) whether PCOS is a risk factor for steatosis, and 2) the impact, in PCOS patients, of IR and hyperandrogenism on steatosis and fibrosis. Methods We considered 202 consecutive Italian PCOS nondiabetic patients and 101 age-matched controls. PCOS was diagnosed applying the Rotterdam diagnostic criteria. Steatosis was diagnosed if hepatic steatosis index (HSI) >36, while fibrosis by using the FIB-4 score. As surrogate estimate of insulin sensitivity we considered the insulin sensitivity index (ISI). Free an…

Impaired Kupffer Cell Self-Renewal Alters the Liver Response to Lipid Overload during Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis

2020

International audience; Kupffer cells (KCs) are liver-resident macrophages that self-renew by proliferation in the adult independently from monocytes. However, how they are maintained during non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) remains ill defined. We found that a fraction of KCs derived from Ly-6C+ monocytes during NASH, underlying impaired KC self-renewal. Monocyte-derived KCs (MoKCs) gradually seeded the KC pool as disease progressed in a response to embryo-derived KC (EmKC) death. Those MoKCs were partly immature and exhibited a pro-inflammatory status compared to EmKCs. Yet, they engrafted the KC pool for the long term as they remained following disease regression while acquiring matur…

Statins in liver disease: not only prevention of cardiovascular events

2018

Statins are lipid-lowering agents and one of the most pre-scribed drugs worldwide. Their main mechanism of action –inhibition of the mevalonate pathway through an effect on hydroxy-methylglutaryl CoA reductase, thus affecting the synthesis of cholesterol in the liver – makes this class of drugs pivotal in primary and secondary prevention of cardio-vascular risk, as extensively demonstrated in large prospective, randomized controlled trials. Along the years, we learned that the lower the better, and LDL-cholesterol targets have been progressively reduced to values ≤70 mg/dL for secondary prevention or in the presence of diabetes.

2017

Background and aims Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is epidemiologically associated with hepatic and metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to examine whether hepatic fat accumulation has a causal role in determining liver damage and insulin resistance. Methods We performed a Mendelian randomization analysis using risk alleles in PNPLA3, TM6SF2, GCKR and MBOAT7, and a polygenic risk score for hepatic fat, as instruments. We evaluated complementary cohorts of at-risk individuals and individuals from the general population: 1515 from the liver biopsy cohort (LBC), 3329 from the Swedish Obese Subjects Study (SOS) and 4570 from the population-based Dallas Heart Study (DHS). Results Hep…

Serum metabolites in non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease development or reversion; a targeted metabolomic approach within the PREDIMED trial

2017

Background Limited prospective studies have examined changes in non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease (NAFLD) related serum-metabolites and none the effects of NAFLD-reversion. We aimed to evaluate whether perturbations in metabolites indicate predisposition to NAFLD development and to assess the effects of NAFLD reversion on metabolite profiles. Methods A targeted liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry metabolic profiling (n = 453 metabolites) approach was applied, using serum from 45 subjects of the PREDIMED study, at baseline and after a median 3.8-year follow-up. NAFLD was determined using the hepatic steatosis index; with three groups classified and studied: Group 1, not characteri…

Administrative Coding in Electronic Health Care Record‐Based Research of NAFLD: An Expert Panel Consensus Statement

2021

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Electronic health record (EHR)-based research allows the capture of large amounts of data, which is necessary in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), where the risk of clinical liver outcomes is generally low. The lack of consensus on which International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes should be used as exposures and outcomes limits comparability and generalizability of results across studies. We aimed to establish consensus among a panel of experts on ICD codes that could become the reference standard and provide guidance around common methodological issues.APPROACH AND RESULTS: Researchers with an interest in EHR-based NAFLD research were invited to collect…

Protective effect of quercetin on high-fat diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice is mediated by modulating intestinal microbiota imb…

2016

Gut microbiota is involved in obesity, metabolic syndrome and the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). It has been recently suggested that the flavonoid quercetin may have the ability to modulate the intestinal microbiota composition, suggesting a prebiotic capacity which highlights a great therapeutic potential in NAFLD. The present study aims to investigate benefits of experimental treatment with quercetin on gut microbial balance and related gut-liver axis activation in a nutritional animal model of NAFLD associated to obesity. C57BL/6J mice were challenged with high fat diet (HFD) supplemented or not with quercetin for 16 weeks. HFD induced obesity, metabolic syndrom…

Diet, weight loss, and liver health in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Pathophysiology, evidence, and practice.

2015

Fatty liver accumulation results from an imbalance between lipid deposition and removal, driven by the hepatic synthesis of triglycerides and de novo lipogenesis. The habitual diet plays a relevant role in the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and both risky (e.g., fructose) and protective foods (Mediterranean diet) have been described, but the contribution of excess calories remains pivotal. Accordingly, weight loss is the most effective way to promote liver fat removal. Several controlled studies have confirmed that an intense approach to lifestyle changes, carried on along the lines of cognitive-behavior treatment, is able to attain the desired 7%-10% weight loss,…