Question: how does fat get stored in your liver?

Charlotte Green answered on 15 Mar 2016:

This is a great question and is one we are still trying to fully understand in the research we are doing in my lab.

A the most simple level the liver will store fat when it is out of balance. By this I mean more fat is entering the liver than leaving it. But why this happens is not so clear.

So lets look at how the liver uses fat more closely:
1. Fat gets sent to the liver from different sources: a) fat from your diet (carried in particles from the gut called chylomicrons), b) released from fat tissue (scientific name = adipose tissue).
2. Your liver can actually make its own fat from sugars through a process called de novo lipogenesis ( 🙂 lots of Latin in science, this essentially means making fat from scratch).
3. The liver can get rid of/use fat in different ways a) it can secrete it in particles called lipoproteins, b) it can use it as a fuel and oxidise it

Imagine a see-saw with High fat/sugar diet at one end and secretion/oxidation at the other. If you make one side heavier the other side struggles to balance the see-saw.

Therefore if you have a high fat diet or are obese or have a lot of sugar in your diet the liver may not be able to keep up with burning off the fat and will therefore start to store it inside your liver instead (tipping the see-saw to storage).

Also it becomes more complicated as your genetics can also make it more likely for your liver to become fatty which is why it is important to have a healthy and active lifestyle to reduce the changes of getting metabolic disease.