Salarian, M. et al. Nat. Commun. 10, 4777 (2019)

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a growing liver pathology of increasing public health concern. There’s no treatment available once it develops, making early intervention key. Tracking the progression of the disease, particularly at those critical early stages, is however a challenge. Biopsies are the gold standard, but these are invasive and can be subject to sampling error and inter-observer variability.

In search of a non-invasive option, researchers led by Jenny Yang at Georgia State University have developed a protein MRI contrast agent, collagen type I targeting protein-based contrast agent (ProCA32.collagen1), which can be used to differentiate the fibrotic cells that characterize the liver disease from the surrounding background tissue over time—even at early disease stages. The team reports their ProCA32.collagen1 MRI results in chemical- and diet-induced NASH mouse models in Nature Communications.