Even diabetic patients show higher rates of CVD if they have NASH. eNOS derangements have been demonstrated in animal experimental models of NAFLD/NASH. Although clinical and “sublinical” markers (i.e. “intima-media thickness” and “shear stress” evaluation) seem to have confirmed this suspicion, nevertheless, to our knowledge, no experimental studies on humans have directly demonstrated that endothelial dysfunction is associated selleck chemical with NAFLD/NASH and its extent.Aim: to directly demonstrate that eNOS derangement is associated with NAFLD/NASH. Patients and methods: 18 patients (13 males,

5 females) coming to our department of Internal Medicine for NAFLD/NASH diagnosis and/or evaluation were consecutively enrolled from January to April 2014. Every patient underwent clinical evaluation and liver biopsy after informed consent. Patients were divided in two groups according to the presence of NAFLD or NASH. Of every patient we measured eNOS function by evaluating the vasorelaxation activity induced on isolated mice vessels by platelet-rich plasma obtained by peripheral blood samples, and by performing immunoblot assays for platelet

derived eNOS (p-eNOS). Collected data were compared to those coming from an age and sex matched group of healthy volunteers from a local blood bank. All subjects were non-smokers and had no active cardiovascular diseases. Results: Of the 18 pts 7 (38,8%) had NAFLD and 11 (61,7%) had NASH at the liver biopsy. No statistically Inhibitor Library significant differences were found between the two groups and controls for age, sex, BMI, ALT, prevalence

of hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Ureohydrolase Vascular reactivity curves demonstrated a reduced activity of eNOS in patients with NAFLD and NASH in respect to controls (p<0.005). Moreover, densitomet-ric analysis of immunoblot assays for p-eNOS demonstrated a significantly lower expression in NAFLD and NASH patients in respect to controls (p<0.007). Conclusions: Our findings directly demonstrated that eNOS function is reduced in NAFLD and NASH patients. Endothelial dysfunction may be considered as one of the main pathophysiological mechanisms of liver damage in NAFLD/NASH. Disclosures: The following people have nothing to disclose: Mario Masarone, Albino Car-rizzo, Alessandro Federico, Valerio Rosato, Carmine Vecchione, Marcello Persico Background: The role of B cell leukemia-3 (bcl-3) protein – a nuclear member of the IkB family and regulator of the NFkap-paB subunits p50 and p52 – in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the associated metabolic phenotype is unknown. Methods: Therefore, we examined hepatic gluconeogenesis and lipogenesis in a murine NAFLD model using a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet (HFD) and studied the underlying molecular mechanisms during the development of NAFLD.