Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Staging of Hepatic Fibrosis

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is in parallel with the obesity epidemic, and it is the most common cause of liver diseases. The patients with severe insulin-resistant diabetes having high body mass index (BMI), high-grade adipose tissue insulin resistance, and high hepatocellular triacylglycerols (triglycerides; TAG) content develop hepatic fibrosis within a 5-year follow-up. Insulin resistance with the deficiency of insulin receptor substrate-2 (IRS-2)-associated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) activity causes an increase in intracellular fatty acid-derived metabolites such as diacylglycerol (DAG), fatty acyl CoA, or ceramides. Lipotoxicity-related mechanism of NAFLD could be explained still best by the "double-hit" hypothesis. Insulin resistance is the major mechanism in the development and progression of NAFLD/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Metabolic oxidative stress, autophagy, and inflammation induce NASH progression. In the "first hit" the hepatic concentrations of diacylglycerol increase with an increase in saturated liver fat content in human NAFLD. Activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes are decreased in the liver tissue of patients with NASH. Hepatocyte lipoapoptosis is a critical feature of NASH. In the "second hit," reduced glutathione levels due to oxidative stress lead to the overactivation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/c-Jun signaling that induces cell death in the steatotic liver. Accumulation of toxic levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is caused at least by two ineffectual cyclical pathways. First is the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) oxidoreductin (Ero1)-protein disulfide isomerase oxidation cycle through the downstream of the inner membrane mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and the second is the Kelch like-ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1)-nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) pathways. In clinical practice, on ultrasonographic examination, the elevation of transaminases, γ-glutamyltransferase, and the aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index indicates NAFLD. Fibrosis-4 index, NAFLD fibrosis score, and cytokeratin18 are used for grading steatosis, staging fibrosis, and discriminating the NASH from simple steatosis, respectively. In addition to ultrasonography, "controlled attenuation parameter," "magnetic resonance imaging proton-density fat fraction," "ultrasound-based elastography," "magnetic resonance elastography," "acoustic radiation force impulse elastography imaging," "two-dimensional shear-wave elastography with supersonic imagine," and "vibration-controlled transient elastography" are recommended as combined tests with serum markers in the clinical evaluation of NAFLD. However, to confirm the diagnosis of NAFLD, a liver biopsy is the gold standard. Insulin resistance-associated hyperinsulinemia directly accelerates fibrogenesis during NAFLD development. Although hepatocyte lipoapoptosis is a key driving force of fibrosis progression, hepatic stellate cells and extracellular matrix cells are major fibrogenic effectors. Thereby, these are pharmacological targets of therapies in developing hepatic fibrosis. Nonpharmacological management of NAFLD mainly consists of two alternatives: lifestyle modification and metabolic surgery. Many pharmacological agents that are thought to be effective in the treatment of NAFLD have been tried, but due to lack of ability to attenuate NAFLD, or adverse effects during the phase trials, the vast majority could not be licensed.