A Shotgun Lipidomics Approach To Study Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)

摘要

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered a hidden disease covering a spectrum of disease activity. It is characterized by fat accumulation in the liver (hepatic steatosis) unrelated to alcohol, with statistics showing more than 31% of the adult population in the USA having hepatic steatosis. Although a fatty liver condition, NAFL, could remain benign, it or could progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) due to various cellular insults, leading to inflammation and fibrosis combined with steatosis and progressing to cirrhosis, where 10% of patients will suffer death due to liver disease. These numbers pose NAFLD as a disease of significant clinical concern. Adding to the gravity of the situation is the lack of reliable biochemical diagnostic and prognostic markers to confirm NAFLD diagnosis or its progression to NASH, where biopsies are the only definitive way to diagnose affected individuals. NAFLD and NASH are linked to insulin resistance that drives triglyceride production and fat accumulation in liver. This may be accomplished through either a single factor or a combination of factors such as decreased hepatic free fatty acid oxidation, increased hepatic de novo lipogenesis, or decreased lipid export from the liver, leading ultimately to insulin resistance.