Virginia Tech researcher receives $2.2 million to advance study on small 'fat burning' molecules
The liver is the most resilient organ in the human body. It can remove toxins from the bloodstream, recycle red blood cells, maintain sugar levels, and it can even regenerate itself. But, when a large amount of fat builds up in the liver, it becomes too inflamed to perform its crucial duties.
This condition is called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH for short. It is a type of fatty liver disease that is characterized by inflammation, fat accumulation, and scarring.
Worse yet, much like poison ivy that hides among other vines, poor diagnostics tools for NASH and symptoms that look like general obesity or metabolic disease make it a "silent disease," able to inflict permanent damage years before it is diagnosed. An estimated 30 million people in the U.S. have NASH, and there are no FDA approved drugs to treat it.