from the can't-count-the-empty-liquor-bottles dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Fatty liver disease not associated with alcohol consumption, which is called Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease or NAFLD, affects more than one billion people worldwide. Even in children the numbers are overwhelming, with up to 80 percent of pediatric patients who are considered obese affected worldwide. People with NAFLD can progress to a severe form known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which puts patients at higher risk for cirrhosis or liver cancer.
With no definitive treatment options or early detection methods yet discovered, researchers have been hard at work to identify early biomarkers of this disease. "This becomes also especially important in the context of diabetes because individuals with Type 2 diabetes are much more susceptible to this disease," says Rohit N. Kulkarni, MD, PhD, Section Head, Senior Investigator, Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology, Joslin Diabetes Center, and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
But recent research from Dr. Kulkarni's lab at Joslin has uncovered a biomarker in humans tied to the development of NAFLD that might help doctors detect early stages of the disease. The researchers also determined that this biomarker, a protein known as "neuronal regeneration related protein" (or NREP), plays a significant role in the regulation of a pathway that is currently being reviewed in clinical trials as a treatment option for the disease. The study was published today in Journal of Clinical Investigation.
"We identified NREP as a new biomarker for NAFLD that is involved in the regulation of liver fat metabolism and in a process called fibrosis that occurs during the progression of the fatty liver disease that may lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer" says Dario F. De Jesus, MSc, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Kulkarni Lab at Joslin and lead author on the study.
Journal Reference:
Dario F. De Jesus, Kazuki Orime, Dorota Kaminska, Tomohiko Kimura, Giorgio Basile, Chih-Hao Wang, Larissa Haertle, Renzo Riemens, Natalie K. Brown, Jiang Hu, Ville Männistö, Amélia M. Silva, Ercument Dirice, Yu-Hua Tseng, Thomas Haaf, Jussi Pihlajamäki, Rohit N. Kulkarni. Parental metabolic syndrome epigenetically reprograms offspring hepatic lipid metabolism in mice. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2020; DOI: 10.1172/JCI127502
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @01:36AM (2 children)
Look at patient. If patient is obese, they have fat-ass liver disease (FALD). Only cure is to take away their motorized scooter so they have to walk to McDonald's for their daily Big Mac.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Thursday April 09 2020, @04:08AM
You really don't know how much I did not want to mod you insightful, yet here we are. I'm a fatass that eats healthy, (used to) excersize 10+ hours a week, yet still fat. I can easily lose 10 lbs in a month. Problem is, it takes me 2 days to find them again.
My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 09 2020, @03:04PM
Nothing like a sedentary lifestyle to make sure you die quicker. It leads to weight gain and muscle loss. So, if you're already having troubles, that will exacerbate the problems you have. Sure, it's unhealthy to be obese, but weight isn't the be all end all with regards to your health.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @01:47AM
Spend research money on alcoholics liver disease market, far bigger and lucrative market.
BTW, milk thistle, does it actually work? I am starting get sick of chopped liver as I am no jew.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @02:50PM
Couldn't parents just feed their children less sugar? Or at least less high fructose corn syrup? It's in everything but a person can still cut back their consumption of it.
HFC seems to have a strong anecdotal correlation to fatty liver disease.
I imagine any adults drinking frilly alcoholic beverages with added HFC as a sweetner merely hasten their demise, rather than either one being a direct cause. You light the candle on both ends, then yeah you really get your liver lit.