RIVERSIDE, Calif., Sep 11, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers say they
have linked second-hand smoke to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice.
The study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, not only finds fat
accumulating in the liver cells of mice exposed in the laboratory to second-hand
smoke, but describes how smoke affects two key regulators of fat synthesis on
the molecular level.
Study leader Manuela Martins-Green, a professor of cell biology at the
University of California, Riverside, says smoke exposure inhibits the first
regulator -- called adenosine monophosphate kinase -- and this prompts the
second regulator -- sterol regulatory element-binding protein -- to spur
synthesis of fatty acids in the liver.
The researchers say discouraging cigarette smoking helps prevent not only
cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and cancer, but now also liver
disease.
For the purposes of the study, the researchers define secondhand smoke as the
combination of smoke exhaled by a smoker and smoke given off by the burning end
of a tobacco product.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a rising cause of chronic liver injury in
which fat accumulates in the liver of people who drink little or no alcohol. At
its most severe, it can progress to liver failure.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International