All posts tagged: fatty

There’s a Fatty Liver Epidemic. AI Could Help Get Ahead of It

There’s a Fatty Liver Epidemic. AI Could Help Get Ahead of It

Published by skeptic

All over the world, a slow, insidious change is taking place in the composition of the livers of more than a billion people. While the presence of fat in a normal, healthy liver is negligible, many adults and even children have livers where fat exceeds 5 percent or even 10 percent of the organ’s total weight. Its unnatural presence causes inflammation, cell damage, and the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis, all hallmarks of fatty liver disease, a condition that now impacts approximately 30 percent of adults worldwide. If left to linger, progressive fat accumulation can ultimately lead to liver failure, and it has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and various cancers. But the condition typically develops without noticeable symptoms, so it is rarely detected at an early and treatable stage. Even in cases of cirrhosis or advanced scarring of the liver, three-quarters of people are only diagnosed once their condition has become life-threatening. As a result, growing numbers of specialists are investigating how AI might help. Jeffrey Lazarus, a …

Common asthma drug may reverse dangerous fatty liver disease

Common asthma drug may reverse dangerous fatty liver disease

Published by Jenni Sidey

A medication long used to help people breathe may soon help protect the liver as well. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, or MUSC, have discovered that formoterol, a common asthma drug, may reverse key signs of MASH, a dangerous liver disease affecting millions worldwide. MASH, short for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, develops when excess fat builds up in the liver and triggers inflammation and injury. Over time, the disease can scar the liver, cause organ failure and increase the need for transplantation. Cases continue to rise alongside obesity and Type 2 diabetes, creating a growing global health burden. Despite the seriousness of the disease, treatment options remain limited. Researchers say the new findings, published in the journal npj Metabolic Health and Disease, could open the door to a new and potentially faster treatment path because formoterol already has a long safety history in humans. The discovery began almost by accident. Formoterol treatment attenuates steatosis in HFD mice. (CREDIT: npj Metabolic Health and Disease) An Unexpected Discovery During Kidney Research Scientists in the lab …

UCLA researchers discover key driver of fatty liver disease, inflammation and aging

UCLA researchers discover key driver of fatty liver disease, inflammation and aging

Published by Jenni Sidey

A small cluster of damaged immune cells can do outsized harm. That is the picture emerging from new research at UCLA, where scientists identified a rogue population of macrophages, the tissue-patrolling immune cells that normally clean up debris and help maintain order. In aging livers, and in livers damaged by fatty liver disease, those cells can slip into a senescent state. They stop dividing, refuse to die and begin sending out inflammatory signals that disturb the tissue around them. “Senescent cells are fairly rare, but think of them like a broken-down car on the 405,” said Anthony Covarrubias, senior author of the study and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “Just one stalled car can back up traffic for miles. Now imagine five or ten of them slowly accumulating. That’s what these cells do to a tissue: even a small number causes enormous disruption.” For years, scientists argued over whether macrophages could truly become senescent at all. Part of the problem was that …