25% of the world’s population suffer from fatty liver disease, also called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. According to Inserm, 200,000 people are affected in France. It “is characterized by an accumulation of fat in the liver which can lead to inflammation and then to cirrhosis”. The problem with this disease is that it is silent and cannot be reversed once it has started to develop. But researchers have discovered a molecule to prevent itas explained in a press release published on EurekAlert.
They studied mice that already had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The analyzes revealed that a molecule was present in large quantities, in particular in their liver, the Adgrf1. She would be responsible for the mechanism that causes the storage of fat in the organ, and they concluded that she could be a marker for detecting this disease.
Decreased fat accumulation in the liver
After a high-fat diet in mice, they found that if Adgrf1 was not reduced, they showed characteristics of diabetes, with insulin resistance and high fasting blood sugar. So, in obese mice, they tried to block this protein via gene therapy. And the results showed that their insulin sensitivity improved, as did their fasting blood sugar.
With this protein manipulation, liver cells also accumulated less lipids, and liver enzymes were reduced. On the other hand, in the blood, the fat levels were still high. They came to the conclusion that blocking the expression of Adgrf1 could help stop excess fat accumulation in the liver of obese people.
Source: Eurekalert
