From liver fat to full-blown metabolic disorder: the kidney as target organ

Can metabolomic signature foster precision medicine approaches in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease arena?

“…An impressively consistent line of research has identified the intrahepatic accumulation of fat [i.e., steatosis, of which the most common cause in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)] as a fundamental intermediate step in the complex process eventually leading, via insulin resistance, to incident type 2 diabetes; incident metabolic syndrome; as well as to metabolic damage of target organs ( 3 ). The spectrum of this target organs damage is phenotypically diverse and spans from cardiovascular morbidity and mortality to cirrhosis and end-stage liver failure, recurrent and de novo NAFLD following liver transplantation, chronic kidney disease, and hepatic and extra-hepatic cancers.…”