Kidney disease linked to metabolic fatty liver disease both ways
Chronic kidney disease was linked to later metabolic fatty liver disease (hazard ratio 1.36); the reverse link had a ratio of 1.64, versus people without each condition.
Limit: Acute kidney dysfunction could inflate chronic kidney disease prevalence in the hospital cohort
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
UK Biobank participants were studied in two prospective observational analyses: 462,516 for chronic kidney disease preceding liver disease and 438,126 for the reverse direction. The liver condition was metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, a form of fatty liver disease. Both links persisted when researchers required a two-year gap between the conditions. Hazard ratios compare rates over time, not absolute chances of developing disease.
Blood protein measurements from 50,941 participants identified 41 shared protein features. Protein scores improved prediction beyond clinical factors in testing within UK Biobank. Separately, among 32,898 Chinese adults first hospitalized with the liver condition during 2018–2023, kidney disease prevalence was 9.23% using diagnostic codes, kidney filtration estimates and urine protein measurements, versus 2.34% using discharge codes alone.
Why it matters
The authors supported assessing kidney and liver risks together, an approach relevant to managing chronic disease in later life.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish cause and effect, and the shared protein comparisons were exploratory and cross-sectional. Acute kidney dysfunction could contribute to the hospital figures; the protein scores need independent validation in ethnically diverse populations outside the UK and across measurement platforms.
- Machine learning
- Chronic kidney disease
- Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
- 19-protein MASLD score
- 37-protein CKD score
- Humans
The paper
Shanxi Medical University
Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases, Oct 19, 2026
