Reduced lysosomal acid lipase activity: A new marker of liver disease severity across the clinical continuum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?

Reduced lysosomal acid lipase activity: A new marker of liver disease severity across the clinical continuum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? World J Gastroenterol. 2019 Aug 14;25(30):4172-4180 Authors: Baratta F, Pastori D, Ferro D, Carluccio G, Tozzi G, Angelico F, Violi F, Del Ben M Abstract Lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) plays a key role in intracellular lipid metabolism. Reduced LAL activity promotes increased multi-organ lysosomal cholesterol ester storage, as observed in two recessive autosomal genetic diseases, Wolman disease and Cholesterol ester storage disease. Severe liver steatosis and accelerated liver fibrosis are common features in patients with genetic LAL deficiency. By contrast, few reliable data are available on the modulation of LAL activity in vivo and on the epigenetic and metabolic factors capable of regulating its activity in subjects without homozygous mutations of the Lipase A gene. In the last few years, a less severe and non-genetic reduction of LAL activity was reported in children and adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), suggesting a possible role of LAL reduction in the pathogenesis and progression of the disease. Patients with NAFLD show a significant, progressive reduction of LAL activity from simple steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and cryptogenic cirrhosis. Among cirrhosis of different etiologies, those with cryptogenic cirrhosis show the most significant reductions of...
Source: World Journal of Gastroenterology - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: World J Gastroenterol Source Type: research