Fructose as a key player in the development of fatty liver disease

Figure 1 Diet based on high cholesterol, high saturated fat, and high fructose (cafeteria or fast food type) recapitulates features of the metabolic syndrome and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with progressive fibrosis in human and mice. NAFLD: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; NASH: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

Figure 2 As the high fat diet produces obesity, insulin resistance, and some hepatic steatosis with minimal inflammation with no fibrosis, the fast food diet produces a gene expression signature of increased hepatic fibrosis, inflammation, and endoplasmic reticulum stress and lipoapoptosis. HSP: Heat shock proteins.