FRIDAY, May 12, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- An imbalance in the fat content of the liver may cause fatty liver disease to advance to full-blown liver failure, Canadian researchers report.
The study found evidence in mice that a disproportionate ratio of two "phospholipid" constituents of cell membranes undermines the membrane's integrity and plays a role in progression to a condition called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
When this ratio is disturbed, "it appears to allow leakage of enzymes and other materials out into the bloodstream," study author and biochemist Dennis Vance of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, said in a prepared statement.
As reported in the May issue of Cell Metabolism, the findings suggest that dietary or other interventions that maintain a healthy ratio may provide new ways to manage NASH.
About two to five percent of people in the United States have NASH, and another 10 percent to 20 percent have abnormal deposits of fat in their livers, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
"The rise in overweight children and adults has left us with a huge number of people at risk for liver disease, and we've had no way of telling 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," study author Andrew Mason said in a prepared statement.
"We had not conceived that a phospholipid ratio imbalance would have such an effect. The major importance of the findings has to be that we now have new avenues to investigation and possible treatment," he said.
More information
For more on NASH, head to the U.S. National Institute on Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
