Advances of Research on Lipotoxicity and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Objective:Lipotoxicity is crucial to the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD).If liver is exposed to an excess of free fatty acids in blood,unless leptin action increases their oxidation sufficiently,unoxidized fatty acids will deposit in hepatocytes and cause lipotoxicity and lipoapoptosis.The mechanisms of this programmed cell death involve mitochondrion and lysosomes dysfunction,Fas expression and endoplasmic reticulum(ER)stress.The measures to prevent lipotoxicity include decreasing lipid in blood as well as in nonadipose tissues,and increasing FFAs oxidation.Drugs that prevent lipoapoptosis will be useful in treating NAFLD.