From Liver Fat to Cancer: Perils of the Western Diet
1
Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction, Departments of Pharmacology and Pathology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, San Diego, CA 92093, USA
2
Academy of Integrative Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Academic Editor: Alessandro Granito
Cancers 2021, 13(5), 1095; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13051095
Received: 11 January 2021
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Revised: 27 February 2021
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Accepted: 28 February 2021
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Published: 4 March 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Obesity: Current Insights into Its Role in Pancreatic Cancer)
Simple Summary
Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a common liver disease, characterized by fatty liver, chronic tissue damage, inflammation and fibrosis. NASH greatly increases the risk of the most common liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a leading cause of cancer related deaths worldwide. Here, we discuss how the Western Diet contributes to NASH and HCC development with a special emphasis on the roles of cholesterol and different metabolic regulators.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer provides the prototypical example of an obesity-related cancer. The obesity epidemic gave rise to an enormous increase in the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition that affects one third of American adults. In about 20% of these individuals, simple liver steatosis (hepatosteatosis) progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) characterized by chronic liver injury, inflammation, and fibrosis. In addition to liver failure, NASH greatly increases the risk of HCC. Here we discuss the metabolic processes that control the progression from NAFLD to NASH and from NASH to HCC, with a special emphasis on the role of free-non-esterified cholesterol in the process.
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Keywords:
obesity; cholesterol; NAFLD; NASH; HCC
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kim, J.Y.; He, F.; Karin, M. From Liver Fat to Cancer: Perils of the Western Diet. Cancers 2021, 13, 1095. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13051095
AMA Style
Kim JY, He F, Karin M. From Liver Fat to Cancer: Perils of the Western Diet. Cancers. 2021; 13(5):1095. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13051095
Chicago/Turabian StyleKim, Ju Y., Feng He, and Michael Karin. 2021. "From Liver Fat to Cancer: Perils of the Western Diet" Cancers 13, no. 5: 1095. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13051095
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