The role of monocyte metabolism and signalling in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (MONOS study)

Summary

This study is aimed at getting a better understanding of the causes of NAFLD and involves a blood test to look at how the immune system is playing a part in this condition. 

Although fatty liver is linked to weight and diabetes, some people who are not overweight have fatty liver and some people who are significantly overweight do not. In addition, some people accumulate fat in the liver without getting severe liver damage, whilst in other people the fat in the liver causes progressive damage and scarring, which can lead to severe liver disease.

We do not understand why fatty liver affects people differently and the purpose of this study is to better understand this. We will invite healthy volunteers to give a blood sample which can then be compared to a patients blood sample. There is evidence that the immune system may play a part in this by contributing to inflammation and scarring in the liver. 

Participation: For this study we recruited 16 participants from the Cambridge BioResource. Visits took place at the Cambridge BioResource's clinical facility on the Cambridge Biomedical campus.

Organisation: This study is organised by Dr Michael Allison from Cambridge University Hospitals.