The growing incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children is associated with prenatal exposure to several endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease diagnoses are on the rise in children, affecting 6% to 10% of children in general and 34% of obese children. One of the most common liver diseases worldwide, it can lead to life-threatening conditions, such as cirrhosis (late-stage scarring in the liver) and liver cancer.
“These findings can inform more efficient early-life prevention and intervention strategies to address the current non-alcoholic fatty liver disease epidemic,” the study’s lead author, Vishal Midya, Ph.D., told Science Daily. Pregnancy is a sensitive window of development for the fetus, and the evidence is mounting from animal and human studies that the programming of cells that leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease may begin in utero.