UF Medicine research shows the role of diet in developing liver inflammation
Researchers hope to prevent conditions that would lead to liver transplant
Matthew Merritt, Ph.D.
Photo by Emily Mavrakis
Nov. 26, 2024 — Matthew Merritt, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, recently published research in the journal Cells Report Medicine that describes a novel method for detecting metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD.
An estimated 30% of the United States population has MASLD, which is a precursor to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH. MASLD and MASH are build-ups of excess fat in the liver that cause harmful inflammation. MASH can lead to liver failure, creating a high demand for liver transplants, which already have higher demand than supply. MASH is predicted to become the No. 1 cause of liver transplants by 2030.
Health care providers are searching for ways to prevent the disease from progressing to this end state, including early-stage screening, which Merritt explores in his research.
Here, Merritt shares more about the paper and its implications for clinical practice:
Why is MASH an important condition to research?
MASH is an inflammatory liver condition that can lead to liver damage and scarring. Scarring reduces blood flow and oxygen access, debilitating the liver’s ability to filter blood and detoxify harmful substances from the body.
Why is the cause of MASLD misunderstood?
MASLD literally means an accumulation of hepatic, or liver, fat. However, the origin of the fat and its subsequent effects remain unclear. Ultimately, it is caused by overeating, but the search for the means of interrupting the inflammatory cascade could drastically reduce the instances of MASH.
What did you research findings show?
Using a specialized MRI technique, our team monitored how well mouse model livers broke down fatty acids for energy through β-oxidation, a process linked to MASLD that occurs when fatty acid metabolism is poorly regulated. We aimed to track β-oxidation in real time because it can detect MASLD in humans.
Animal models in the study received a high-fat diet, simulating the energy-dense but nutrient-poor food intake of a diet containing processed foods, added sugars, and saturated fats. Visualizing the breakdown of food using a biomarker, the researchers found that high-fat diet subjects had less efficient β-oxidation than low-fat diet subjects, causing the conditions that lead to MASLD and MASH in humans.
What was novel about the method you used to directly assess β-oxidation?
β-oxidation has never been imaged before. Other methods can measure the uptake of a fatty acid, but detecting its actual metabolism in in vivo, by MRI or any other technique, had to this point never been accomplished.
What are the translational impacts of this method?
We would like to generalize this approach to human studies. The ability to infer β-oxidation in humans could inform clinical care and intervene in MASLD/MASH progression earlier on. This methodology is inherently non-invasive, which provides an alternative route to invasive liver biopsies for MASLD diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment.
