TRANSCRIPTOMIC PROFILING ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE. TRANSCRIPTOMIC PROFILING ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE

The pathophysiological mechanisms that drive non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) progression remain poorly understood. This multicenter study characterized the transcriptional changes that occur as liver disease progresses. 216 snap frozen liver biopsies, comprising 206 NAFLD cases with different fibrosis stages and 10 controls were studied. Samples underwent high-throughput RNA sequencing. This study provides novel insights into transcriptional changes during liver disease evolution and progression as well as proof of principle that transcriptomic changes reveal potentially tractable biomarkers for NAFLD fibrosis. Overall design: 216 snap-frozen biopsies were processed for RNA sequencing on the Illumina NextSeq 500 system.