Iron and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

The mechanisms that promote liver injury in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) are yet to be thoroughly elucidated. As such, effective treatment strategies are lacking and novel therapeutic targets are required. Iron has been widely implicated in the pathogenesis of NAFLD and represents a pote...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:World journal of gastroenterology : WJG 2016-09, Vol.22 (36), p.8112-8122
Main Authors: Britton, Laurence J, Subramaniam, V Nathan, Crawford, Darrell Hg
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adipose Tissue - metabolism
Animals
Endothelial Cells - cytology
Fatty Liver - metabolism
Ferritins - blood
Hepatocytes - metabolism
Homeostasis
Humans
Insulin Resistance
Iron - blood
Iron - metabolism
Iron
Fatty
Lipid Metabolism
Liver - metabolism
Liver - pathology
liver
Liver
mellitus
Adipose
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - metabolism
Obesity - complications
resistance
Steatohepatitis
Diabetes
Review
steatosis
Insulin
tissue
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Summary:The mechanisms that promote liver injury in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) are yet to be thoroughly elucidated. As such, effective treatment strategies are lacking and novel therapeutic targets are required. Iron has been widely implicated in the pathogenesis of NAFLD and represents a potential target for treatment. Relationships between serum ferritin concentration and NAFLD are noted in a majority of studies, although serum ferritin is an imprecise measure of iron loading. Numerous mechanisms for a pathogenic role of hepatic iron in NAFLD have been demonstrated in animal and cell culture models. However, the human data linking hepatic iron to liver injury in NAFLD is less clear, with seemingly conflicting evidence, supporting either an effect of iron in hepatocytes or within reticulo-endothelial cells. Adipose tissue has emerged as a key site at which iron may have a pathogenic role in NAFLD. Evidence for this comes indirectly from studies that have evaluated the role of adipose tissue iron with respect to insulin resistance. Adding further complexity, multiple strands of evidence support an effect of NAFLD itself on iron metabolism. In this review, we summarise the human and basic science data that has evaluated the role of iron in NAFLD pathogenesis.
ISSN:1007-9327
2219-2840
DOI:10.3748/wjg.v22.i36.8112