Metabolic disease: maternal diet influences fetal fatty liver

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a result of lipid accumulation and inflammation in hepatic cells. It is linked to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, and can progress to liver cirrhosis in extreme cases. In order to see how maternal diet affects offspring, female macaques were fed a high-fat diet during pregnancy. McCurdy et al. found that the high-fat diet affects fetal metabolic development, independent of maternal diabetes and obesity. The lipotoxicity seen in fetal livers persists into the postnatal period, illustrating that exposure to a high-fat diet during development enhances pediatric NAFLD risk.