Research progress on roles of bile acids and its receptors in pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and pharmacological treatment

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a liver metabolic disorder characterized by lipid accumulation in liver cells, and it has become the main cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. 20% to 30% of patients with NAFLD were able to progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and the development of NASH is closely related to various metabolic disorders. Bile acids and its receptor function play important roles in the pathogenesis of NASH, and bile acid receptors are the important targets for the treatment of NASH. This article reviewed the roles of bile acids and their receptors in the development of NAFLD and NASH, especially the functional research of farnesol X receptors (FXR) in different tissues (including liver and intestine), and introduced the research progress of NASH therapeutic drugs based on bile acids and their receptors.