Excess sugar intake causes fatty liver: IIT team

A silent disease

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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a medical condition in which excess fat deposits in the liver

The disease starts silently with no overt symptoms for two decades

If left untreated, the excess fat can irritate liver cells, resulting in scarring of the liver (cirrhosis)

In advanced cases, it can even lead to liver cancer

Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 14

A team of researchers from IIT-Mandi, led by Dr Prosenjit Mondal, Associate Professor, School of Basic Sciences, has used complementary experimental approaches to establish the underlying biochemical relationship between the consumption of excessive sugar and the development of fatty liver, medically known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The research comes at a time when the government has included NAFLD in the National Programme for Prevention & Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).

According to Dr Mondal, NAFLD is a medical condition in which excess fat deposits in the liver. The disease starts silently with no overt symptoms for two decades. If left untreated, the excess fat can irritate liver cells, resulting in scarring of the liver (cirrhosis) and, in advanced cases, can even lead to liver cancer. The treatment of advanced stages of NAFLD is difficult.

“India is the first country to identify the need for action on NAFLD and with good reason. The prevalence of NAFLD in India is about 9 per cent to 32 per cent of the population with Kerala alone having a prevalence of 49 per cent and a staggering 60 per cent prevalence among obese schoolchildren,” he added.

“One of the causes for NAFLD is the overconsumption of sugar – both table sugar (sucrose) and other forms of carbohydrates. The consumption of excess sugar and carbohydrates causes the liver to convert these into fat in a process called hepatic De Novo Lipogenesis or DNL, which leads to fat accumulation in the liver,” he said.

He said the unravelling of the molecular link between sugar and fat accumulation in the liver is key to developing therapeutics for the disease.

“From the preventive angle, the IIT team’s research has conclusively shown that the excessive sugar intake leads to a fatty liver. This should offer incentive to the public to reduce sugar intake to stop NAFLD in its early stages” he added.