The Double Burden of Fat: When Liver and Pancreas Steatosis Amplify Heart Risk
A large-scale study leveraging the UK Biobank has revealed that the co-occurrence of fat accumulation in both the liver and pancreas—conditions known as MASLD and pancreatic steatosis—poses a significantly greater risk to cardiometabolic health than either condition alone. In a cohort of over 16,000 individuals, researchers found that dual-organ steatosis was associated with a more than twofold increased hazard of developing cardiometabolic multimorbidity, which includes diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and stroke. The study further linked this dual fat deposition to adverse cardiac structural changes, such as increased left ventricular mass, and identified distinct proteomic pathways, including heparan sulphate proteoglycan catabolism, that are upregulated in these patients.
Why it might matter to you: For pharmacologists, this research underscores the need for therapeutic strategies that target the interconnected metabolic pathways of multiple organs, rather than a single disease site. The identification of specific catabolic pathways offers potential novel targets for drug development in metabolic syndrome. Understanding this additive risk profile can inform the design of clinical trials for new metabolic agents, ensuring they assess efficacy across a broader spectrum of cardiometabolic endpoints.
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