Abstract
The liver is the central metabolic organ that plays a key role in lipid metabolism. Absorbed free fatty acids and fatty acids originating from adipose tissue reach the liver, where they are utilized as an energy source of energy, stored in the form of triglycerides, or are a building block of complex lipids. The liver plays a key role in the homeostasis of cholesterol, which is oxidized into the bile acids or excreted directly into the bile.
Metabolic diseases (such as obesity, diabetes mellitus type 2, and some dyslipidemias) lead to the development of chronic liver disease, as in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); on the other hand, some chronic hepatopathies (such as liver cirrhosis, chronic cholestasis) cause the development of dyslipidemia characterized by the presence of lipoprotein X. This work briefly surnmarizes the relationship between lipid/lipoprotein metabolism and chronic liver diseases, focusing on NAFLD, cholestasis, alcoholic liver disease, viral hepatitis and cirrhosis.