High- and low-protein diet: effects on human hepatic fat content, autophagy, mitochondrial function and fat metabolism

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming increasingly prevalent and nutrition intervention remains the most important therapeutic approach for NAFLD. Our aim was to investigate whether low- (LP) or high-protein (HP) diets are more effective in reducing liver fat and reversing NAFLD. Here RNA-seq analysis was used to analyse which metabolic pathways that were altered on the LP and HP diets. 19 morbidly obese subjects undergoing bariatric surgery were randomized into two hypocaloric (1500 kcal/day) diet groups, a low protein (LP: 10 E% protein, n=10) and a high protein (HP: 30 E% protein, n=9), for three weeks prior to surgery. RNA-seq analyses were performed on liver samples collected during surgery.