The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon constitute a national task force project on 'nonalcoholic fatty liver disease' (NAFLD) as the premier medical research institute has identified the disease as a thrust area. The project on NAFLD will be under the subject area of gastroenterology.

Senior officials in the ICMR said that the research proposal on this disease is significant as it is being reported in adults and children from various parts of the country, and the rising prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome is likely to escalate the condition several folds and rapidly. The uniqueness of the Asian- Indian metabolic syndrome poses the need for a better understanding of NAFLD in our context. Effective lifestyle intervention is the cornerstone to its prevention and management, besides medical and surgical options.

The 'nonalcoholic fatty liver disease' comprises a spectrum of liver injury in persons in the absence of intake of significant amount of alcohol, where fat deposition in the liver is a major feature and trigger for damage. Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis or NASH is the stage when there is fat in the liver, along with inflammation and hepato-cellular damage.  

Nevertheless, NASH can be severe and can lead to cirrhosis and death. It is understood to be an integral part of the metabolic syndrome, which comprises a cluster of abnormalities (obesity, dysglycemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension, procoagulant tendency etc.) with insulin resistance as central pathogenic factor.  Several co-morbidities have been described including cardiac, renal, reproductive etc, officials said.

The ICMR has called for proposals from the eligible scientists for this research. Scientists working in a permanent position in a medical college, research institute, or university, anywhere in the country including government, semi-government and registered bodies are eligible to participate in the proposed research.  Those from non-governmental agencies and private organizations should provide documentary evidence of SIRO recognition (or copy of the letter of submission to DSIR) with Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India at the time of applying.