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(Photo by Haberdoedas Photography via Pexels)<\/p>\n
By Talker<\/p>\n
By Stephen Beech<\/p>\n
Popular weight loss drugs<\/a> such as Ozempic and Wegovy are also good for the liver, according to new research.<\/p>\n GLP-1 medicines improve liver health \u2014 regardless of weight loss, say scientists.<\/p>\n Canadian researchers found that semaglutide \u2014 the active ingredient in weight loss medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy that mimic the gut hormone GLP-1 \u2014 acts directly on a group of liver cells to improve organ function and does so independently of shedding weight.<\/p>\n Their findings, published in the journal Cell Metabolism<\/a>, challenge long-held assumptions about how GLP-1 drugs work in the liver \u2014 and could reshape how doctors treat metabolic liver disease.<\/p>\n For years, the liver benefits of semaglutide puzzled scientists.<\/p>\n The drug was known to lower blood sugar and promote weight loss, but patients’ livers were improving in ways that those effects alone could not explain.<\/p>\n Study lead author Dr. Daniel Drucker, of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute<\/a>, Toronto, said: “We’ve seen in clinical trials that patients who lose very little weight see the same reductions in liver inflammation, scarring and enzyme levels as those who lose a great deal of weight.<\/p>\n “Now we know why.”<\/p>\n Drucker has been at the forefront of GLP-1 research since the 1980s when his pioneering discoveries helped lay the groundwork for the development of GLP-1 medicines.<\/p>\n After transforming treatment of Type 2 diabetes and obesity, semaglutide and other GLP-1 medicines have been approved for other conditions including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).<\/p>\n It is a severe form of fatty liver disease<\/a> in which fat buildup, inflammation and tissue scarring can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure.<\/p>\n A pioneer in GLP-1 biology Dr. Daniel Drucker has dedicated his career to understanding how the GLP-1 hormone, and the therapies derived from it, function in the body. (Colin Dewar \/ Sinai Health via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n Drucker said MASH is closely linked with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, with treatment usually including lifestyle changes to reduce weight.<\/p>\n Now he and his colleagues have discovered that semaglutide<\/a> acts directly on the liver to reduce inflammation and scarring and improve organ function in a way that is independent of weight loss.<\/p>\n Their findings overturn a prevailing assumption in the field that liver cells don’t carry the receptor that semaglutide binds to, meaning the drug had no direct route to the organ.<\/p>\n Postdoctoral fellow Maria Gonzalez-Rellan spearheaded the work that combined sophisticated mouse models of MASH with deep molecular analysis of liver cells.<\/p>\n Her work identified two cell types carrying semaglutide receptors: liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) and immune T cells.<\/p>\n Although LSECs account for only around 3% of liver cell volume, they proved to be the key driver of semaglutide’s liver benefits.<\/p>\n Gonzalez-Rellan explained that LSECs line the tiniest blood vessels in the liver and are studded with pores that allow them to act as a molecular sieve, filtering substances passing between the liver and the bloodstream.<\/p>\n She showed that semaglutide reversed MASH in mice that lacked the brain receptors controlling appetite, demonstrating that weight loss is not required for liver benefits.<\/p>\n David Trinks<\/p>\n In another experiment, mice lacking LSEC receptors showed no liver improvement on semaglutide even after losing 20% of their body weight.<\/p>\n Detailed molecular analyses of liver cell types showed that semaglutide shifts gene activity in LSECs, prompting them to release anti-inflammatory molecules that act on the broader liver environment \u2014 pushing it toward a state more closely resembling a healthy, disease-free liver.<\/p>\n Drucker, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto<\/a>, said: “It turns out that the receptor responsible for these benefits is in a very specialized population of liver cells.<\/p>\n “And this receptor orchestrates the production of molecules that talk to many different types of liver cells to calm down the inflammatory environment that is the problem in metabolic disease.”<\/p>\n Haberdoedas<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n He says the findings carry practical implications.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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