| Title: | The Relationship Between Liver and Pancreas Magnetic Resonance Imaging Characteristics with Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis, Fatty Pancreas, and Various Related Health Outcomes |
| Lead Institution: | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center |
| Principal investigator: |
Application 132578
WARNING: the interactive features of this website use CSS3, which your browser does not support. To use the full features of this website, please update your browser.
About
Evidence increasingly associates fibrosis, inflammation, iron, and fat in the liver and pancreas with adverse health outcomes and elevated morbidity and mortality. MASH is linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and malignancy, including HCC. Fatty pancreas is also linked to diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Invasive and non-invasive methods, including MRI parameters like PDFF, CT1 value, and iron content, can evaluate deviations from normal structure and potentially predict inflammation and/or malignancy in the liver and pancreas. Accumulation of fat in the liver and pancreas is thought to serve as a potential precursor to HCC and PDAC. Reducing pancreatic fat may potentially lower the risk of pancreatic cancer, assessable with MRI PDFF. Both pancreatic steatosis and iron identified by MRI parameters, are associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases in MASLD patients. On the other hand, MRI has been used in predicting clinical outcomes in liver diseases, and genetically predicted liver PDFF is suggested to be causally associated with liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, MASH, and liver malignancies. Therefore, our study aims to investigate liver and pancreas MRI characteristics and their association with MASH, fatty pancreas, and other related health outcomes. We require prospective whole cohort data for patients with liver and pancreas MRI information in the UK Biobank and demographic, clinical, laboratory, and genomic covariates will be included. All patients with MRI data in the UK Biobank will be recruited. We will utilize current data in the UK Biobank and prospectively collect data for various diseases, including but not limited to MASH and fatty pancreas. During 36 months (at first step) and probably more follow-up time, we will perform univariate, multivariate, and/or Mendelian randomization analyses to explore the correlation between liver and pancreas MRI parameters (PDFF, cT1, volume, and iron) with MASH, fatty pancreas, and various health outcomes encompassing overall and specific cancer incidence and mortality, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, mental health status, diabetes, IBD, PCOS, and AI. Our study will provide a valuable foundational resource for understanding the natural history of MASH and fatty pancreas. This understanding of disease is critical and will provide the relevant context to future research in this field. Exploring fibro-inflammation, iron, and fat content in the liver and pancreas, and assessing resulting conditions such as MASH and fatty pancreas may provide a crucial window for intervention to prevent long-term and often challenging complications including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.2 Publications
| Pub ID | Title | Author(s) | Year | Journal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20490 | Coffee Consumption and Improved Liver Outcomes: Clinical, Imaging, and Proteomic Evidence From the UK Biobank | Hyun-Seok Kim (+22) | 2026 | Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology |
| 20599 | Refined liver MRI-derived cT1 thresholds capturing hepatic fat fraction enhance mortality risk prediction | Minsun Kwak (+15) | 2026 | JHEP Reports |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health