Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2021; 27(30): 4999-5018
Published online Aug 14, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i30.4999
Brain-gut-liver interactions across the spectrum of insulin resistance in metabolic fatty liver disease
Eleni Rebelos, Patricia Iozzo, Maria Angela Guzzardi, Maurizia Rossana Brunetto, Ferruccio Bonino
Eleni Rebelos, Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku 20500, Finland
Patricia Iozzo, Maria Angela Guzzardi, Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Pisa 56124, Italy
Maurizia Rossana Brunetto, Hepatology Unit and Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Pathology of Hepatitis, Pisa University Hospital, Pisa 56121, Italy
Maurizia Rossana Brunetto, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa 56121, Italy
Maurizia Rossana Brunetto, Ferruccio Bonino, Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging, National Research Council, Napoli 80145, Italy
Author contributions: Rebelos E and Iozzo P drafted the manuscript; Bonino F conceived the study idea; Guzzardi MA, Brunetto MR and Bonino F critically revised the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the text; Rebelos E and Iozzo P contributed equally.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Ferruccio Bonino, MD, PhD, Professor, Senior Scientist, Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging, National Research Council, Via Tommaso De Amicis, 95, Napoli 80145, Italy. ferruccio.bonino@unipi.it
Received: February 10, 2021
Peer-review started: February 10, 2021
First decision: April 18, 2021
Revised: April 29, 2021
Accepted: July 13, 2021
Article in press: July 13, 2021
Published online: August 14, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: From studies using tissue-targeted animal models, it emerges that neither insulin resistance per se induces hepatic steatosis, nor steatosis induces whole-body insulin resistance. However, it is evident that reducing inflammation has several beneficial effects both at the hepatic and whole-body level. In fact, either hepatic or systemic inflammation act as major throttle of progressive liver and systemic diseases.