The blind men ‘see’ the elephant-the many faces of fatty liver disease

Figure 4 Adipose tissue functions as an energy reserve; where energy can be stored in the most concentrated form viz. lipids safely. In other tissues lipid accumulation could cause ‘lipid toxicity’. Adipose tissue ‘buffers’ the lipids and energy rich compounds which are pumped into the blood stream soon after meals. However when excess calories overload adipose tissue the buffering action ceases, resulting in overflow of lipids to liver which is the next buffer. But as soon as liver also is overloaded, lipids overflow and gets accumulated in various other organs. In blood vessel walls macrophages takes up the excess lipids to form foam cells initiating a cascade which results in fibrosis of vessel walls.