A severe form of fatty liver disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the leading cause of liver transplantation, but there are few treatment options and currently no medications. In a new study, Yale researchers have identified a driver of liver damage that occurs in NASH and which may open new treatment options in the future.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide. It's a condition in which excess fat builds up in the liver and is more often diagnosed in people with obesity. If left untreated, it can develop into the more severe NASH or cancer.
As obesity rates have risen over the past few decades, so have NASH diagnoses. An estimated 5% of U.S. adults have NASH, which is marked by liver damage and inflammation that can cause fibrosis, or scarring of the liver. NASH is now the number one indication for"Several hundred thousand people per year may need abecause of NASH," said Dr. Dean Yimlamai, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study.
In previous research on both mice and humans, Yale scientists and others have found that a protein called CYR61 increases when individuals are exposed to high-fat diets. That led them to question whether CYR61 might play a role in the progression of fatty liver disease and NASH. For the new study, researchers used a mouse model of NASH and evaluated how CYR61 affected liver damage.
They found a greater expression of CYR61 in NASH-injured livers compared with those of healthy mice. They also observed that as
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