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MOLECULAR IMAGING

Detecting liver disease via an endogenous pigment

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 4, pages 761–762 (2020)Cite this article

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Lipofuscin, an endogenous pigment, can be used as a near-infrared fluorescent biomarker to stage and to monitor the progression of chronic liver disease, as shown in mice with induced liver disease and in human livers biopsied from patients with liver fibrosis.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition estimated to affect 25% of adults in the United States1, is directly linked to the increased prevalence of obesity2. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of NAFLD suffered by 2–3% of the population, can be accompanied by necroinflammation and can lead to severe liver fibrosis (cirrhosis) and hepatocellular carcinoma3. Screening methods do not typically differentiate between these liver diseases, nor monitor disease progression after a positive diagnosis. In animal models, liver disease progression is monitored after killing the animals at various time points. In the clinic, a liver biopsy is the gold standard for determining the stage of liver fibrosis4. The development of non-invasive methods to monitor liver fibrosis and inflammation longitudinally would provide data that are more rigorous and accurate for the better understanding of the evolution of these highly complex diseases. Reporting in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Moungi G. Bawendi, Rakesh K. Jain and colleagues now show that the endogenous pigment lipofuscin can be used as a non-invasive biomarker of chronic liver disease by visualizing it via near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave-infrared (SWIR) imaging after NIR excitation5.

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Fig. 1: Detection and monitoring of liver pathologies via the endogenous pigment lipofuscin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Justin J. O’Sullivan, Nathaniel H. O. Harder & Marie C. Heffern

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  1. Justin J. O’Sullivan
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  2. Nathaniel H. O. Harder
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  3. Marie C. Heffern
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Correspondence to Marie C. Heffern.

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O’Sullivan, J.J., Harder, N.H.O. & Heffern, M.C. Detecting liver disease via an endogenous pigment. Nat Biomed Eng 4, 761–762 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-020-0601-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-020-0601-2

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