Fatty liver disease and scarring have strong genetic component

This is a micrograph of an inflamed fatty liver. White indicates areas of fat; red are hepatocytes or liver cells. Bluish areas are fibrotic strands. Image courtesy of James Heilman, MD

“The most common known causes of hepatic fibrosis have been viral hepatitis C infections, alcohol abuse, poor diet and obesity and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH, which resembles alcoholic liver disease but occurs in people who drink little or no alcohol,” said first author Rohit Loomba, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology.

“We found, however, that hepatic fibrosis and steatosis (infiltration of liver cells with fat) are strong genetic traits. At around 50 percent heritability, they're more genetic than body mass index.”

Loomba and colleagues performed a cross-sectional analysis of 60 pairs of twins residing in Southern California. Forty-two pairs were monozygotic or identical, meaning they developed from a single fertilized egg that split to form two embryos. Eighteen were dizygotic or fraternal, developing from two different eggs, each fertilized by separate sperm cells.

Using two advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques that quantify fat content in the liver and liver stiffness (a measure of fibrosis), the researchers found that 26 of the 120 participants had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which can be a precursor to development of more serious conditions. Hepatic steatosis and liver fibrosis correlated strongly with monozygotic twins, but not with dizygotic pairs.

“This evidence that hepatic steatosis and hepatic fibrosis are heritable traits has major implications,” said Loomba. “It means that we can now look for the relevant genes as potential therapeutic targets.”

Loomba said the research team plans to expand their research to include the role of the microbiome – the collective genomes of the microorganisms that reside within and on humans, and which also indicates a degree of heritability.

Hepatic steatosis and fibrosis are among the hottest areas in research and medicine at the moment, according to Loomba, with more than a dozen clinical trials currently underway. NAFLD, which is characterized by hepatic steatosis, is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the United States, affecting 80 to 100 million Americans, with 18 million believed to have the more serious NASH.

###

Co-authors include Nicholas Schork, and Karen E. Nelson, J. Craig Venter Institute; Chi-Hua Chen, Ricki Bettencourt, Ana Bhatt, Brandon Ang, Phirum Nguyen, Carolyn Hernandez, Lisa Richards, Joanie Salotti, Steven Lin, Ekihiro Seki, Claude B. Sirlin, and David A. Brenner, all at UC San Diego.

Funding support for this research came, in part, from the American Gastroenterological Association Foundation, a T. Franklin Williams Scholarship Award, Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc., the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Association of Specialty Professors and the American Gastroenterological Association (grant K23-DK090303).

Media Contact

Scott LaFee
slafee@ucsd.edu
619-543-6163

 @UCSanDiego

http://www.ucsd.edu 

Media Contact

Scott LaFee EurekAlert!

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors