Grant: Project Grant

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major health problem that is caused by extra fat building up in a person's liver cells. Worldwide, this disease affects about 30% of the adult population and over 70% of people with obesity. The health risk for people with NAFLD is that this disease can progress to more serious problems: •inflammation and swelling of their liver, called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) •normal liver tissue being replaced by non-living scar tissue, called cirrhosis •end-stage liver disease and liver failure, the most common reason for needing a liver transplant Having NAFLD or NASH also places people at much greater risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease and end-stage kidney disease. Today, we have no effective treatments for NASH. My research team has discovered that a protein called TGH affects distribution and storage of fat. Our experiments show that TGH has profound effects on circulating fat in the blood and on development of NAFLD. We showed that reducing the amount TGH in mice protects the liver from developing NAFLD and NASH and improves insulin signaling. Because TGH regulates how fat is stored in the liver, this protein could be a good target for drugs to prevent or treat NAFLD and NASH. My research aims to find out how TGH regulates the amounts of fat that people store in the liver and in the blood. Understanding the mechanisms that this protein uses to regulate fat storage may lead to new treatments for NAFLD/NASH and diseases triggered by NAFLD/NASH.