Global molecular landscape of early MASLD progression in human obesity.

Qing Zhao; William De Nardo; Ruoyu Wang; Yi Zhong; Umur Keles; Gabriele Sakalauskaite; Li Na Zhao; Huiyi Tay; Sonia Youhanna; Mengchao Yan; Ye Xie; Youngrae Kim; Sungdong Lee; Rachel Liyu Lim; Guoshou Teo; Pradeep Narayanaswamy; Paul R Burton; Volker M Lauschke; Hyungwon Choi; Matthew J Watt; Philipp Kaldis

Journal article

Global molecular landscape of early MASLD progression in human obesity.

Qing Zhao, William De Nardo, Ruoyu Wang, Yi Zhong, Umur Keles, Gabriele Sakalauskaite, Li Na Zhao, Huiyi Tay, Sonia Youhanna, Mengchao Yan, Ye Xie, Youngrae Kim, Sungdong Lee, Rachel Liyu Lim, Guoshou Teo, Pradeep Narayanaswamy, Paul R Burton, Volker M Lauschke, Hyungwon Choi, Matthew J Watt Show all

Elife | Published : 2026

DOI: 10.7554/eLife.109534

Abstract

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is often asymptomatic early on but can progress to irreversible conditions like cirrhosis. Due to limited access to human liver biopsies, systematic and integrative molecular resources remain scarce. In this study, we performed transcriptomic analyses on liver and metabolomic analyses on liver and plasma samples from morbidly obese individuals without liver pathology or at early-stage MASLD. While the plasma metabolomic profile did not fully mirror liver histological features, dual-omics integration of liver samples revealed significantly remodeled lipid and amino acid metabolism pathways. Integrative network analysis uncoupled..

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