Abstract
Hepatic steatosis is associated with poor cardiometabolic health, with de novo lipogenesis (DNL) contributing to hepatic steatosis and subsequent insulin resistance. Hepatic saturated fatty acids (SFA) may be a marker of DNL and are suggested to be most detrimental in contributing to insulin resistance. Here, we show in a cross-sectional study design (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03211299) that we are able to distinguish the fractions of hepatic SFA, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids in healthy and metabolically compromised volunteers using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). DNL is positively associated with SFA fraction and is elevated in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver and type 2 diabetes. Intriguingly, SFA fraction shows a strong, negative correlation with hepatic insulin sensitivity. Our results show that the hepatic lipid composition, as determined by our 1H-MRS methodology, is a measure of DNL and suggest that specifically the SFA fraction may hamper hepatic insulin sensitivity.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1891 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 20 Apr 2020 |
Keywords
- Adipose Tissue
- Adult
- Aged
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/metabolism
- Fatty Acids/metabolism
- Female
- Humans
- Insulin Resistance/physiology
- Lipids
- Lipogenesis/physiology
- Liver/diagnostic imaging
- Male
- Middle Aged
- Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/metabolism
- Triglycerides/metabolism
- RISK
- LIVER-DISEASE
- SPECTROSCOPY
- STEATOSIS
- CARDIOVASCULAR-DISEASE
- MICE
- BRAIN