Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: the mist gradually clears.

By Nimantha Mark Wilfred de Alwis, C. Day. Journal of Hepatology, 2008

613 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the commonest liver disorder in the developed world affecting up to a third of individuals. It is closely associated with features of the metabolic syndrome, particularly obesity and diabetes. It can progress to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver failure and is an increasing indication for transplantation. Dietary and genetic factors determine susceptibility to NAFLD and its progression. NAFLD may also be involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Most patients present with incidentally found abnormal liver blood tests. Diagnosis is usually one of exclusion. Liver biopsy is required for disease staging, but new imaging modalities and biomarkers are emerging which may eventually fulfil this role. There is, as yet no firm evidence-based treatment for NAFLD. Therapy is currently directed at treating components of the metabolic syndrome which may also be beneficial for the liver. The recent elucidation of the mechanisms leading to progressive disease suggests a variety of novel targets worthy of testing in animal models of NAFLD and subsequently in pilot studies in humans.

Subfields: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Epidemiology, Pathology and Forensic Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4f9527e71a11df64620be1e7b5ae76716240204b

How researchers see this paper

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In Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism

1. Gerald I. Shulman
2. V. Samuel

In Epidemiology

1. P. Newsome
2. A. Diehl
3. J. Tomlinson
4. J. Dowman
5. Gerald I. Shulman
6. V. Samuel

Citations in the corpus

• Genetic variation in PNPLA3 confers susceptibility to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (2008, background): “Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common form of liver disease in Western countrie”
• Pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (2009, background): “The prevalence of NAFLD has risen rapidly in parallel with the dramatic rise in obesity and diabetes,(1,2) and is rapidly becoming the most common cause of liver disease in Western countries.(3) Indeed, NAFLD is now recognized to be the aetiology in many cases previously labelled as cryptogenic cirr”
• The severity of NAFLD is associated with gut dysbiosis and shift in the metabolic function of the gut microbiota (2016, background): “The evolution of NAFLD to cirrhosis is not mandatory: Around 20%-30% of NAFLD patients develop NASH, with only some of them further evolving to fibrosis and then cirrhosis.((1,2)) NAFLD is a complex disease driven by the interaction between host genetic background and environmental factors.”