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Comment
. 2025 Oct 1;329(4):G559-G561.
doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00248.2025. Epub 2025 Sep 15.

Colon: a likely middleman connecting the liver, adipose tissue, and gut microbiota in MASLD

Medha Priyadarshini  1 , Brian T Layden  1   2
Affiliations
Comment

Colon: a likely middleman connecting the liver, adipose tissue, and gut microbiota in MASLD

Medha Priyadarshini et al. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. .
No abstract available

Keywords: MASLD; adipo-IR; colon; encroachment; gut microbiota.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
illustrates how the colon may serve as a crucial link between microbiota encroachment and liver and adipose tissue dysfunction in MASLD. The intestinal mucosal barrier becomes compromised under chronic inflammation caused by metabolic stress. This disruption allows microbes that typically adhere to the outer mucus layer to invade the sterile inner mucus layer, a phenomenon known as microbiota encroachment. Blue spheres represent microbiota-dependent factors that may mediate the relationship between encroachment, adipose dysfunction, and liver via colonocyte metabolism, in MASLD. Changes in colonic gene expression (ovals represent a few key genes)—particularly in the pathways related to insulin signaling, lipid metabolism, transport, and gut inflammation—are associated with encroachment and probably contribute to insulin resistance in adipose tissue. This resistance is known to lead to liver triglyceride accumulation and lipotoxicity. Through these mechanisms, encroachment-associated colonic gene expression contributes to stress or ‘tox functions’ like steatosis in the liver. Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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