Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2018; 24(25): 2661-2672
Published online Jul 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i25.2661
Apoptosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases
Tatsuo Kanda, Shunichi Matsuoka, Motomi Yamazaki, Toshikatsu Shibata, Kazushige Nirei, Hiroshi Takahashi, Tomohiro Kaneko, Mariko Fujisawa, Teruhisa Higuchi, Hitomi Nakamura, Naoki Matsumoto, Hiroaki Yamagami, Masahiro Ogawa, Hiroo Imazu, Kazumichi Kuroda, Mitsuhiko Moriyama
Tatsuo Kanda, Shunichi Matsuoka, Motomi Yamazaki, Toshikatsu Shibata, Kazushige Nirei, Hiroshi Takahashi, Tomohiro Kaneko, Mariko Fujisawa, Teruhisa Higuchi, Hitomi Nakamura, Naoki Matsumoto, Hiroaki Yamagami, Masahiro Ogawa, Hiroo Imazu, Kazumichi Kuroda, Mitsuhiko Moriyama, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8610, Japan
Author contributions: Kanda T designed research, performed research, and analyzed data; Kanda T, Matsuoka S, Yamazaki M, Shibata T, Nirei K, Takahashi H, Kaneko T, Fujisawa M, Higuchi T, Nakamura H, Matsumoto N, Yamagami H, Ogawa M, Imazu H, Kuroda K, and Moriyama M wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Kanda T received research grants from AbbVie, MSD, Chugai Pharma, and Sysmex. These companies played no role in this study. Other authors declare no conflict of interests related to this publication.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tatsuo Kanda, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, 30-1 Oyaguchi-Kamicho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8610, Japan. kanda2t @yahoo.co.jp
Telephone: +81-3-39728111 Fax: +81-3-39568496
Received: April 3, 2018
Peer-review started: April 3, 2018
First decision: May 29, 2018
Revised: June 4, 2018
Accepted: June 22, 2018
Article in press: June 22, 2018
Published online: July 7, 2018
Processing time: 93 Days and 4.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD), including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), are one of the most serious health issues. We searched articles written in English and listed on PubMed for the role of apoptosis in NASH. There are close association between apoptosis and NAFLD/NASH. Several inhibitors of apoptosis have been suggested as potential treatments for NASH, and some are now being tested in clinical trials. Therefore, we should focus on the role of apoptosis in the progression of NAFLD/NASH.