Publications

Publications

• Tincopa MA, Díaz LA, Huang DQ, Arab JP, Arrese M, et al. Disparities in screening and risk stratification for Hispanic adults with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Hepatology. 2025;81(6):1792–1804.

  DOI: 10.1097/HEP.0000000000001121

  This multinational analysis brought together STELLA investigators and collaborators from UCSD to quantify how Hispanic adults with MASLD are screened and risk-stratified compared with non-Hispanic adults. The paper highlights gaps in the current non-invasive testing pathways when applied to Latin American and U.S. Hispanic populations, and argues for region-specific calibration of screening algorithms — directly informing the clinical rationale for STELLA.

• [Third STELLA publication] — Journal of Hepatology, 2025.

  DOI: 10.1016/j.jhep.2025.04.035

  [Please send the full citation (title, author list, volume/pages) and 2–3 bullet points on the key findings, and I’ll write a summary paragraph in the same style as the other two.]

• Díaz LA, Ajmera V, Loomba R, Arab JP, Arrese M, et al. Inherited genetic risk of liver fibrosis in lean versus nonlean metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2025.

  DOI: 10.1111/apt.70433

  Using a prospectively enrolled, age- and sex-matched cohort of lean and nonlean individuals with MASLD — validated in an external Latin American cohort — this study examined how inherited genetic risk (a score combining PNPLA3, TM6SF2, and the protective HSD17B13 variant) relates to liver fibrosis across BMI categories. The prevalence of significant fibrosis was similar in lean and nonlean patients, and a high genetic risk score was associated with a higher prevalence of significant fibrosis regardless of BMI. The findings challenge the assumption that lean MASLD is a milder phenotype and underscore why STELLA explicitly includes a lean MASLD/ALD sub-cohort.

• Interim analyses and presentations

  • Díaz LA et al. Liver fibrosis in individuals with MASLD in Latin America: interim results from the STELLA study. Annals of Hepatology. 2025 (ALEH Congress abstract). — First cross-sectional baseline analysis of 370 STELLA participants across 10 centers, identifying female sex, T2DM, and dyslipidemia as leading risk factors for liver fibrosis in Latin American adults with MASLD.

  [Add other posters, oral presentations, and upcoming papers as they are published.]