Randomised clinical trial: semaglutide versus placebo reduced liver steatosis but not liver stiffness in subjects with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease assessed by magnetic resonance imaging

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Semaglutide in the context of fatty liver & elevated liver enzymes.

To investigate the effects of semaglutide on liver stiffness and liver fat in subjects with NAFLD using non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods.

Why It Was Studied

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists may be a treatment option in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Semaglutide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Semaglutide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Semaglutide could be set against what happens without it.

The primary endpoint was change from baseline to week 48 in liver stiffness assessed by MRE.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Elasticity Imaging Techniques, Glucagon-Like Peptides, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Semaglutide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Semaglutide in people with fatty liver & elevated liver enzymes.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2021 (Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics), a journal based in England.

More context: the Semaglutide compound page, Fatty liver & elevated liver enzymes research.