Internal medicine

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Disease

Prediabetes

Obesity

Diabetes mellitus

Bioinformatics

Biology

Subclinical infection

Endocrinology

Type 2 diabetes

Insulin resistance

Steatosis

Steatohepatitis

Fatty liver

Metabolic syndrome

Medicine

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become an epidemic, much like other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancer, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The pathophysiology of NAFLD, particularly involving insulin resistance and subclinical inflammation, is not only closely linked to that of those NCDs but also to a severe course of the communicable disease COVID-19. Genetics alone cannot explain the large increase in the prevalence of NAFLD during the past 2 decades and the increase that is projected for the next decades.

A global view of the interplay between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and diabetes