Impact of PNPLA3 I148M on Clinical Outcomes in Patients With MASLD

Abstract

Background and aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a heterogenous clinical and histopathological entity, where multiple metabolic co-factors are intertwined with high interindividual variability. The impact and severity of each factor (including obesity and type 2 diabetes) define a systemic dysmetabolism that can lead to either advanced liver disease and its complication (including hepatocellular carcinoma and clinical events related to portal hypertension) or extrahepatic events: incident cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and extrahepatic cancers. The balance between environmental factors and genetic susceptibility has unique implications in MASLD: the intermittent injury of metabolic co-factors, their fluctuation over time and their specific management, are counterbalanced by the presence of gene variants that can significantly impact the disease at multiple levels. The I148M variant in the PNPLA3 gene is the most investigated genetic susceptibility that induces a more severe steatohepatitis, enhanced fibrogenesis and can shape the incidence of long-term clinical events regardless of, or worsened by, other metabolic risk factors.

Methods and results: In this review, we will summarise the updated evidence on the natural history of MASLD accounting for classical metabolic risk factors, the role of PNPLA3 in clinical sub-phenotyping (e.g., 'lean MASLD'), impact on disease severity and fibrosis progression, as well as its role for prognostication, alone or in combination with non-invasive tools into polygenic risk scores.

Keywords: PNPLA3; cardiovascular disease; hepatocellular carcinoma; liver fibrosis; metabolic dysfunction‐associated Steatotic liver disease; metabolic syndrome; portal hypertension; single nucleotide polymorphisms.

FIGURE 1

Clusters of metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) phenotype: the impact of environmental factors and the PNPLA3 I148M variant sub‐phenotype on the severity of liver disease. CKD, chronic kidney disease; MASH, metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatohepatitis.

FIGURE 2

Association between PNPLA3 rs738409 C > G variant and both hepatic and extrahepatic complication. HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; MASLD, metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatotic liver disease; MASH, metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatohepatitis.