The prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the consequent burden of metabolic syndrome have increased in recent years. Although the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is not completely understood, it is thought to be the hepatic manifestation of the dysregulation of insulin-dependent pathways leading to insulin resistance and adipose tissue accumulation in the liver. R...

Nuclear receptors comprise a superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors that are involved in important aspects of hepatic physiology and pathophysiology. There are about 48 nuclear receptors in the human. These nuclear receptors are regulators of many hepatic processes including hepatic lipid and glucose metabolism, bile acid homeostasis, drug detoxification, inflammation, regenerati...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a component of the metabolic syndrome, with a clinical spectrum ranging from simple fatty liver to steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The primary event of NAFLD is the accumulation of triacylglycerols (TAGs) in hepatocytes. In this issue of the JCI, Donnelly et al. report on their use of stable isotope methodology to show that f...

Incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is increasing with an estimated prevalence of 20-30% in developed nations. This is leading to increased incidence of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular cancer. It is critical to understand the etiology and pathogenesis of any disease to create therapeutic targets and develop new treatments. In this paper we discuss the etiology and...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common underlying causes of chronically elevated liver tests and liver disease in adults and children worldwide and may be strongly suspected if not diagnosed by ever evolving and available serologic and imaging-based noninvasive tests. However, the definitive diagnosis of the most progressive form of NAFLD, nonalcoholic steatohepatiti...

results the relative expression of mtdna copy number was 3.7 fold higher in nafld patients than healthy controls (p < 0.0001). the results remained significant after adjustment for age, bmi, and gender (p = 0.02). in addition, the mtdna copy number was 4.3 (p < 0.0001) and 3.2-fold (p < 0.0001) higher in nonalcoholic fatty liver (nafl) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (nash) patients than heal...