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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2016; 22(16): 4079-4090
Published online Apr 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i16.4079
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as a multi-systemic disease
Hakan Fotbolcu, Elçin Zorlu
Hakan Fotbolcu, Department of Cardiology, Pendik BölgeHastanesi, Istanbul 34000, Turkey
Elçin Zorlu, Istanbul University, Forensic Science Institute, Istanbul 34000, Turkey
Author contributions: Fotbolcu H performed research and wrote the paper; Zorlu E critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hakan Fotbolcu, MD, Department of Cardiology, Pendik BölgeHastanesi, Emek Caddesi, No. 281, Narcity Konutları, A 2b Blok, Kat 9 D 56, Maltepe, Istanbul 34000, Turkey. hakan_fotbolcu@yahoo.com
Telephone: +90-505-6882125 Fax: +90-216-3752212
Received: January 6, 2016
Peer-review started: January 6, 2016
First decision: January 28, 2016
Revised: February 2, 2016
Accepted: March 1, 2016
Article in press: March 2, 2016
Published online: April 28, 2016
Processing time: 104 Days and 4.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease. NAFLD has been recognized as a hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome linked with insulin resistance. NAFLD should be considered not only a liver specific disease but also an early mediator of systemic diseases. Therefore, NAFLD is usually associated with cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and dyslipidemia. This review focuses on the pathogenesis of NAFLD and its relation with other systemic diseases.