Nuclear receptors and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: An update

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the leading cause of chronic liver disease in adults and children worldwide. The symptoms of NAFLD range from simple steatosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) to hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis, even ultimately develops to hepatocellular carcinoma. Nuclear receptors (NRs) are a superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors, most of which are ligand-activated that control cellular homeostasis in the liver and other tissues. A growing number of studies demonstrated the important role of NRs in NAFLD. In this review, the current findings on the role of NRs in NAFLD are summarized and future perspectives to target NRs for NAFLD are discussed.

Keywords

• Nuclear receptors (NRs)
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
• Pregnane X receptor (PXR)
• Constitutive androstane receptor (CAR)
• Farnesoid X receptor (FXR)
• Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR)