Figure 1.

Aetiology and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In most cases, NAFLD is a consequence of sedentary lifestyle, a high fat diet, and excess glucose/fructose intake. While the state can be completely reversed with a lifestyle change or therapy, its progression is driven by pathological processes that result in histologically visible steatosis, ballooning, fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Each step is accompanied by immune cell activation while later steps include hepatic stellate cell activation. The end stage of this process can be hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).