Functional Services

The UMass Metabolic Disease Research Center (MDRC) provides noninvasive measurements of liver steatosis and fibrosis in anesthetized mice to analyze mouse models of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) using state-of-the-art Vega Wide-field Ultrasound Imaging System (Sonovol). This highly sophisticated system enables multi-axis liver analysis (transverse, lateral, and sagittal) for Shear Wave Elasticity (SWE) imaging to measure liver fibrosis (tissue stiffness) and liver steatosis (tissue brightness). The noninvasive nature of this service enables a longitudinal analysis (time-course) of fatty liver development and progression to NASH. This service may involve chronic feeding of specialized NASH diets, including methionine-choline deficient (MCD) diet, choline-deficient L-amino acid high-fat diet (CDAHFD; HFD with 0.1% methionine), and Gubra Amylin NASH (GAN) diet. The MDRC also provides functional analysis of exercise capacity and endurance using treadmills with acute and chronic exercise protocols, and cardiovascular parameters using VisualSonics In Vivo Imagine System and CODA blood pressure monitoring device. These functional services complement the metabolic and analytical services to identify the pathogenesis of metabolic liver disease and cardiovascular disease.