Hydroxytyrosol and vitamin E combination therapy exerts beneficial effects on NAFLD-related fibrosis

Introduction: Liver fibrosis is the result of liver injury secondary to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), imputable to the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), and consequent accumulation mostly of fibrillar collagens. To date, there is no approved pharmacological treatment for reversing of NAFLD-related fibrosis, thus this research field is extensively investigated. Natural antioxidants, such as hydroxytyrosol (HXT) and vitamin E (VitE), have been investigated as drugs both in vivo and in vitro, revealing that when combined they may exert anti-steatogenic and anti-inflammatory effects.