How fatty liver disease may help cancers spread to the liver
Steatotic Liver Promotes Metastatic Niche: Role of Hepatic Stellate Cells
This project looks at how fatty liver disease can create a liver environment that helps colorectal and pancreatic cancer cells grow and spread.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Los Angeles, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11309668 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
From a patient perspective, researchers will study how fatty, inflamed livers change the local tissue to be more welcoming to cancer cells. They will use lab models including high-fat diet animal models, 3D liver cell cultures, and molecular analyses to focus on liver support cells called hepatic stellate cells. The team will examine how these stellate cells make signals (like CXCL12) that activate cancer cells, immune cells such as neutrophils, and pathways like CXCR4 and YAP to promote metastasis. The goal is to link changes seen in fatty liver disease to specific molecules and cell interactions that could be targeted to reduce liver metastases.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates for any future clinical translation would be people with colorectal or pancreatic cancer who also have fatty liver disease or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
Not a fit: Patients without gastrointestinal cancers or without fatty liver disease are unlikely to directly benefit from this specific line of research in the near term.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could point to new targets or strategies to prevent or slow liver metastasis in patients with fatty liver disease and gastrointestinal cancers.
How similar studies have performed: Preclinical rodent studies have shown that a high-fat diet can speed liver metastasis, but focusing on stellate cell–derived CXCL12, CXCR4, neutrophil-driven ECM changes, and YAP signaling is a relatively new, less-tested approach.
Where this research is happening
Los Angeles, United States
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — Los Angeles, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Seki, Ekihiro — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Seki, Ekihiro
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.