Department of Pediatrics, University of Chieti, Via dei Vestini, 5, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Apr 27;23(9):4822. doi: 10.3390/ijms23094822.
Obesity is one of the greatest health challenges affecting children of all ages and ethnicities. Almost 19% of children and adolescents worldwide are overweight or obese, with an upward trend in the last decades. These reports imply an increased risk of fat accumulation in hepatic cells leading to a series of histological hepatic damages gathered under the acronym NAFLD (Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease). Due to the complex dynamics underlying this condition, it has been recently renamed as 'Metabolic Dysfunction Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD)', supporting the hypothesis that hepatic steatosis is a key component of the large group of clinical and laboratory abnormalities of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). This review aims to share the latest scientific knowledge on MAFLD in children in an attempt to offer novel insights into the complex dynamics underlying this condition, focusing on the novel molecular aspects. Although there is still no treatment with a proven efficacy for this condition, starting from the molecular basis of the disease, MAFLD's therapeutic landscape is rapidly expanding, and different medications seem to act as modifiers of liver steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis.
肥胖是影响所有年龄段和不同种族儿童的最大健康挑战之一。全世界几乎有 19%的儿童和青少年超重或肥胖，过去几十年来呈上升趋势。这些报告意味着肝细胞中脂肪堆积的风险增加，导致一系列被缩写为 NAFLD（非酒精性脂肪性肝病）的组织学肝损伤。由于这种情况的潜在复杂动态，最近将其重新命名为“代谢功能障碍相关脂肪性肝病 (MAFLD)”，支持了肝脂肪变性是代谢综合征 (MetS) 大量临床和实验室异常的关键组成部分的假说。本综述旨在分享儿童 MAFLD 的最新科学知识，试图为该疾病的复杂动态提供新的见解，重点关注新的分子方面。尽管目前尚无针对该疾病的疗效确切的治疗方法，但从疾病的分子基础出发，MAFLD 的治疗领域正在迅速扩大，不同的药物似乎可以作为肝脂肪变性、炎症和纤维化的调节剂。
