Aging promotes susceptibility to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in mice

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered as hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome. In a subset of cases hepatic steatosis progresses to steatohepatitis (NASH), which may further advance with significant fibrosis. Epidemiological studies indicate that age has impact on the natural course of NAFLD. The aim of this study was to assess whether there are age dependent differences in the susceptibility to NASH in a dietary murine model. Methods and Results: A high fat diet (HFD) was fed to male C57BL/6 mice at three different age groups: 4, 14 and 24 weeks old. After 12 weeks HFD-feeding we obs…