Your Fatty Liver Might Not Be Destroying Your Heart After All

Scientists at Masonic Research in Utica are pushing back on a growing belief that fatty liver disease automatically leads to a specific form of heart failure.

Researchers at the Masonic Medical Research Institute have published a new study concluding that diet-related steatohepatitis, often called fatty liver disease, does not independently cause heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, known as HFpEF. That condition affects the heart’s ability to relax properly, even though its pumping strength looks normal on standard tests.

The findings appear in the journal PLOS One and come from Dr. Zhiqiang Lin and Dr. Chase Kessinger in MMRI’s biomedical research and translational medicine department.

HFpEF has increasingly been linked to obesity, high blood pressure and metabolic disorders. Roughly five percent of adults in the United States are believed to suffer from metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis, or MASH, a more advanced form of fatty liver disease.

So the question was straightforward. Is the liver condition alone enough to push the heart into failure?

According to the Masonic Utica team, the answer appears to be no.

Researchers tested two specific diets in their study models, one high in fat alone and another high in fat with added fructose and cholesterol, designed to mirror what many would recognize as a Western style diet.

“This study’s findings show that the HFpEF diet, which is similar to our western-style diet, is more harmful than a regular high-fat diet alone, particularly with respect to metabolic dysregulation,” Dr. Lin said, noting that fat by itself did not appear to damage heart muscle cells.

The combination diet created more metabolic disruption. Even then, fatty liver disease on its own did not trigger HFpEF without other contributing factors.

Dr. Kessinger said the results point to additional drivers, including hypertension, as likely culprits in patients who eventually develop cardiac dysfunction.

In other words, it is more complicated than simply blaming fat.

MMRI Executive Director Dr. Maria Kontaridis said the findings could help guide new treatment strategies for patients with MASH and related conditions.

For the Masonic Research Institute in Utica, once again this is the kind of work that has implications far beyond Oneida County.

The full study is available online through PLOS One.