Sadeesh Ramakrishnan, PhD

Summary

Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD)-related HCC develops without liver cirrhosis and alcohol consumption. Perturbations in liver lipid disposal pathways, in particular dysregulation of hepatic ketogenesis, contributes to the pathogenesis of NAFLD and fibrosis. Conversely, ketogenic diet (KD) supplementation decreases liver lipid accumulation, inflammation, and fibrosis in NAFLD models. Our lab is interested in understanding how ketone bodies or ketogenesis regulate NAFLD-related HCC. We have liver specific ketogenesis insufficient and ketolysis insufficient mice to test our hypothesis.