Mutation of autophagy-related gene ATG7 increases the risk of severe disease in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD)is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide.The mechanism of NAFLD has been well studied and it has been previously reported that there are some predisposing genetic polymorphisms of NAFLD,e.g.,genes such as fat mass and obesity-associated(FTO)overexpression,lead-ing to triglyceride accumulation,via upregulation of lipogenic genes has been reported. An earlier study of a 20-gene set pub-lished in 2014 has been correlated with NAFLD severity. Adiposity plays an important role in the amplification of the genetic risk of NAFLD-including three variants:PNPLA3,TM6SF2,and GCKR genes.