According to Canadian scientists, an imbalance in the fat content of the liver may lead to fatty liver disease to advance to full-blown liver failure.
The research on mice discovered evidence that a disproportionate ratio of two "phospholipid" constituents of cell membranes weakens the membrane’s integrity and plays an essential role in progression to a condition known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
When this ratio is disturbed, "it turns up to allow leakage of enzymes and other materials out into the bloodstream," research author and biochemist Dennis Vance of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, said in a prepared statement.
Diet may be helpful in fighting NASH
As announced in the May issue of Cell Metabolism, the result of the research indicates that dietary or other interventions maintaining a healthy ratio may present new strategies of managing NASH.
According to the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, around two to five per cent of people experience NASH, and another 10 to 20 per cent demonstrate nonstandard deposits of fat in their livers.
"The increase in overweight children and adults has left us with an enormous number of people at high risk for liver disease, and we have had no way of determining who will progress from simply having fat in the liver to the fat and inflammation of steatohepatitis. We’ve had nothing to guide these patients," research author Andrew Mason said in a prepared statement.
"We hadn’t considered that an imbalance of phospholipid ratio would have such an effect. The major significance of the findings has to be that we now have new avenues to exploration and potential treatment," he said.
