Obesity and chronic inflammation in the liver trigger the most severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), steatohepatitis. Scientists at the University of Texas (UT) have shown how damaged hepatocytes accumulated in the liver after a vicious cycle of cytokine expression induced shedding of a critical liver receptor.
The controlled cell death process of apoptosis functions as the first step to any full recovery from injury or disease. In the second step of any recovery process, dead cells are cleared by efferocytosis, a process performed by phagocytotic cells like macrophages. Approximately 200-300 billion apoptotic cells are cleared daily by efferocytosis starting with the recognition of newly extracellular facing phosphatidylserine (PtdSer) by PtdSer-binding proteins present on phagocytotic cells.
