Sex-stratified adipose-liver circuits in human MASLD
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a common, clinically heterogeneous condition associated with liver-related and cardiometabolic morbidity. Sex differences in MASLD prevalence and progression are well recognized, but how they extend across the liver and visceral adipose tissue (VAT), a major source of lipid and endocrine signals to the liver, remains unclear.…
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a prevalent, clinically diverse condition linked to liver issues and cardiovascular problems. Notably, sex disparities in MASLD occurrence and advancement are well-documented, yet the mechanisms behind these variations in the liver and visceral adipose tissue (VAT), which contribute significant lipid and endocrine signals to the liver, are not fully understood.
In this study, we examined liver and VAT biopsies from women and men with and without MASLD, producing single-cell datasets for 34 liver samples and 40 VAT samples, comprising 32 matched patient pairs. Our findings reveal that within the liver, women with MASLD exhibit a higher triglyceride-catabolism score in Kupffer cells (1.30 standard deviations higher than men; false discovery rate = 0.0022), along with corresponding hepatocyte and endothelial activities.
Conversely, in the VAT, women with MASLD display increased adipocyte lipid and oxidative metabolism levels (0.87 to 1.15 standard deviations higher than men; false discovery rate not specified).
Written by urgent.news from bioRxiv's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
