The alteration of immune cells in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

摘要

The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) increases rapidly in recent decades. NAFLD has become a major public health problem in China and the whole world, and it is considered as the main cause for the chronic liver diseases. However, there is still not specific and effective treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the advanced form of NAFLD. The inflammation in the liver is the hallmark of NASH. Actually, the dysregulation of immune cells happened in the early stage of NAFLD. Targeting immune cells in the liver may represent one of the effective ways for NASH treatment. A better understanding of the change of immune cells in the pathogenesis of NAFLD will be very helpful for developing new treatments for NAFLD and NASH. Here we summarized how the immune cells were affected in different stages of NAFLD and how these immune cells contributed to the development of NAFLD.