ESR 4: Relationship between intestinal short-chain fatty acid production and hepatic bioenergetic status in NAFLD

Project Summary

This project will focus on the clear identification of clinical, metabolic and molecular abnormalities associated with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), such as early changes in mitochondrial function, biogenesis and oxidative stress, and its regulation in animal models for NAFLD in different stages of the disease.

Research will include methodologies for evaluating the biological activity in isolated liver mitochondria, and mouse primary hepatocytes during lipotoxicity insults and in one rodent model of NAFLD. At the end they can be used to prevent or minimize mitochondrial dysfunction in both in vitro and in vivo models.