12/11/2025
The INCH Lab, supervised by Dr. Hefner, in collaboration with Dr. Dhurandhar and Dr. Hegde, proudly presented their research at ObesityWeek 2025! 🧬✨
Their study, “Sexually Dimorphic Response to Diet-Induced Metabolic Dysfunction–Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), previously known as fatty liver disease,” explored how male and female C57BL/6J mice respond differently to a high-fructose, high-cholesterol, high–saturated fat diet over a 20-week period. This work helps shed light on early metabolic changes that may guide future sex-specific treatments.
Key takeaways:
💡 Males showed faster and more severe MASLD onset, even when accounting for baseline differences—a pattern similar to what is observed in humans.
💡 Females accumulated ~7% less liver fat and required far less insulin to regulate glucose during oral glucose tolerance tests.
💡 100% of males vs. 40% of females developed hepatosteatosis, despite similar increases in fat mass.
💡 Emerging evidence points to estradiol-linked FPR2 expression as a potential protective mechanism in females—a direction the team aims to explore further.
A huge thank you to for having us at this incredible conference, and be sure to check out for more updates and tag NMHI in the conversation!
NMHI is proud of this team’s dedication and contribution toward advancing more personalized, sex-specific approaches to understanding and treating metabolic disease. ❤️🔥
