Fatty liver disease is a growing health problem around the world.
It happens when too much fat builds up in the liver, often due to obesity or eating a high-fat diet.
This can lead to serious health issues like liver damage and other metabolic diseases.
A new study from Fujita Health University has discovered a possible new way to prevent this disease.
The researchers looked at special gut hormones called proglucagon-derived peptides (PGDPs).
These include glucagon, GLP-1, and GLP-2. These hormones are known to help control how fat is processed in the body, but their exact role in fat buildup in the liver was not fully clear.
To find out more, scientists used special mice called GCGKO mice. These mice don’t have the PGDP hormones. When both regular and GCGKO mice were fed a high-fat diet for one week, the GCGKO mice had much less fat buildup in their livers and less body fat overall.
The key reason? The GCGKO mice didn’t absorb as much fat from their food. This was linked to lower activity of a fat-absorbing protein called CD36 in their intestines. Even though their livers were not burning as much fat, the fact that they took in less fat from food helped keep their livers healthy.
The study also found changes in gut bacteria in the GCGKO mice. They had more of a type of bacteria called Parabacteroides and less Lactobacillus, which might help protect against obesity. This shows how gut health, diet, and hormones are all connected.
Dr. Yusuke Seino, who led the study, believes that by better understanding how these hormones work, we might be able to develop new treatments for fatty liver disease. He also suggests that certain diets could help improve gut hormone activity and prevent liver problems.
In the future, medicines that block the effects of GLP-2 and glucagon might help treat or prevent obesity and fatty liver disease. These findings give hope for new ways to help people with this growing health issue.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about simple habit that could give you a healthy liver, and common diabetes drug that may reverse liver inflammation.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about simple blood test that could detect your risk of fatty liver disease, and results showing this green diet may strongly lower non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The study is published in Nutrients.
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