Distinct hepatic gene expression patterns characterize progressive disease in NAFLD

The pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is not fully understood. Transcriptomic analysis of a large cohort of 318 patients provides evidence of gene perturbations related to inflammation, complement and coagulation pathways, and tissue remodeling in distinct states of NAFLD. Using the Nanostring nCounter assay, we quantified expression of 795 genes (and 5 housekeeping genes) hypothesized to be involved in hepatic fibrosis, inflammation, and steatosis in liver tissue from 318 adults. Liver specimens were categorized into 4 distinct NAFLD phenotypes: normal liver histology (NLH), steatosis only (steatosis), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis without fibrosis (NASH F0), and NASH with fibrosis stage 1-4 (NASH F1-F4).