Research
Hormonal
Insulin resistance in adipose tissue leads to increased free fatty acid (FFA) release, which drives hepatic fat accumulation and inflammation.
Reducing visceral fat through caloric deficit and exercise improves adipose tissue insulin sensitivity, thereby reducing the flood of FFAs to the liver and lowering liver fat.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
As insulin inhibits lipolysis in the adipocytes, insulin resistance in the adipose tissue causes increased release of FFAs.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple studies including mouse models and human data.
Source
Role of Insulin Resistance in MAFLD
Yoshitaka Sakurai et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2021
DOI 10.3390/ijms22084156
narrative_reviewCited 419×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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