dr. Maarten Buytaert (MD)
Doctoral fellow – Hepatology Research Unit – Dept. of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Fac. Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University
Pediatric resident – Ghent University Hospital
Principal investigator: prof. Hans Van Vlierberghe (MD, PhD)
Research focus
Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) has become the most common chronic liver disease worldwide, parallelling the increasing prevalence of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Also in the pediatric population, the estimated MASLD prevalence has risen to 5-10% at present. As MASLD can progress to hepatic inflammation (steatohepatitis), fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), it is important to identify the underlying risk factors to implement effective preventive measures. Studies have shown that maternal obesity increases the risk of MASLD in children, therefore we hypothesize that maternal obesity will also accelerate the development of offspring HCC, at a considerably younger age. Our interest is to further elucidate this and to investigate possible preventive measures in MASLD and its progression to liver fibrosis and liver cancer using in vivo models.
Contact & links
- Lab address: University Hospital Ghent, Hepatology Research Unit, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, Building The Core, 9000 Ghent
- LinkedIn