Funded by GMR and delivered by The University of Queensland

About

One of the key challenges in treating liver disease today is that patients often have more than one harmful factor contributing to their liver damage. In Western countries, the most common types of liver disease are alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). These conditions are especially common among ADF veterans and are major causes of illness and death.

There’s an urgent need for better treatments for ALD and MASLD, since many patients either continue to drink alcohol or struggle to lose weight—both of which worsen their condition. These liver diseases often go hand-in-hand with problems in how the body handles iron.

This can include high levels of ferritin (an iron-storage protein), too much iron in the liver, and a buildup of a particularly harmful form of iron called non-transferrin bound iron, which tends to increase as the disease gets worse.

In MASLD, excess iron may also damage fat (adipose) tissue, making the disease worse.

Opportunities and outcomes

Recent research shows that too much iron in fat cells can throw off important hormones and cause fat tissue to stop working properly. Our research focuses on understanding how iron affects fat cells and testing possible treatments that could help people with MASLD.