Hepatic patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 levels are increased in I148M risk allele carriers and correlate with NAFLD in humans

PNPLA3 protein levels were associated with increased hepatic lipid content and disease severity in patients with NAFLD and were higher in PNPLA3 rs738409 (148M) risk allele carriers. Our hypothesis that increased hepatic levels of PNPLA3 may be part of the pathophysiological mechanism of NAFLD is supported.