The purpose of this study is to investigate relationships between the body's growth hormone "axis" and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The growth hormone "axis" includes the hormones growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1, and associated proteins. We hypothesize that there will be a relationship such that people with more advanced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease will have greater impairments in the growth hormone axis. There are no treatments associated with this research study.

Several lines of existing research implicate activity of the GH/IGF-1 axis in the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in humans. Careful phenotyping of GH dynamics in individuals with NAFLD and NASH is required for comprehensive understanding of the degree to which perturbations in the GH axis contribute to the pathogenesis of NAFLD/NASH. The purpose of this research is to comprehensively assess GH dynamics in individuals across the spectrum of NAFLD to determine associations between the GH/IGF-1 axis and stages of disease progression in NAFLD.