Research by the Italian Liver
Foundation (FIF) at the Trieste AREA Science Park published in
the scientific journal Plos One shows that a junk food and high
sugar diets can lead to metabolic syndrome and damage to
children's livers, which are not able to dispose of the excess
fats.
"Considering that childhood obesity is skyrocketing also
here, and that liver damage due to metabolic syndrome will
become the main cause for transplants in coming years, the
(research) model will be an excellent platform for studying the
mechanisms that cause damage, understanding the male/female
differences, and testing medications and new diagnostic
approaches," said FIF Director Professor Claudio Tiribelli, one
of the study's authors.
The study was based on research conducted by FIF on rats,
which developed a model that reproduces the onset of childhood
metabolic syndrome and its implications on the liver, which
resulted in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and
non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
The FIF researchers concluded that the disease progresses
more rapidly in childhood (and in the male rats, more rapidly in
the initial phase when compared to females) and the prognosis is
worse in pediatric patients compared to adults.
The rats were fed a high-fat and high-sugar diet for
sixteen weeks, beginning at the human equivalent of three years
old and continuing until the human equivalent of age 30, in
which 100% developed steatohepatitis at four weeks.
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