Liver fibrosis in PLWH with NAFLD
This was published December 2022 by Dr. Grinspoon and some of his team members who were behind many recent research projects exploring Tesamorelin’s therapeutic effects for patients with HIV who suffer from NAFLD/NASH.
I don’t have access to the article but based on the abstract they identified some 20 proteins which were upregulated in HIV patients with liver fibrosis, base line was
no fibrosis to F1 compared to F2/3( stages 2 or three fibrosis).
Another Interesting part is:
“Key proteins also were found to directly relate to visceral adiposity and glucose intolerance, and to inversely correlate with CD4+ T-cell count.”
Excessive fat in liver caused by among others NAFLD in some individuals act as toxin and trigger immune system starting inflammation which gradually cause scarring of liver tissue(fibrosis/cirrhosis) which lead to liver failure etc. if not treated. That’s the reason researchers want to understand the molecular mechanisms behind starting the inflammation process in order to find therapies which can stop the inflammation.
In this article they found bio makers which are upregulated when the body’s immune system is also upregulated causing inflammation and eventually fibrosis, the same molecules are “ directly related to visceral adiposity”. That’s to me is connecting the dots on molecular level regarding the positive relation between visceral adiposity and NASH in not mice, rats but humans.
Proteomic Analysis of Hepatic Fibrosis in HIV-Associated NAFLD Demonstrates Upregulation of Immune Response and Tissue Repair Pathways - PubMed