A liver-fat signal, not proof of a cure
A subgroup of an obesity trial with fat in the liver.
What did they want to find out?
Did MRI-measured liver fat change at 24 weeks?
What did researchers observe?
The reduction was larger in retatrutide arms than with placebo.
What does this mean for you?
A relative percentage describes changing liver fat, not body-weight loss or a cure of liver damage.
What we still do not know
Missing scans and the absence of biopsies limit long-term conclusions.
Show study details
Original sources checked on 4 October 2026. AI-assisted editorial summaries, not a systematic review or an independent medical assessment.
Triple hormone receptor agonist retatrutide for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: a randomized phase 2a trial
Nature Medicine · 2024
How it was studied
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 substudy; liver MRI.. 98 participants with obesity and fatty liver, without diabetes; a subset of the obesity trial, not an independent new group..
Study finding
At 24 weeks, liver fat fell 42.9%–82.4% relative to baseline across separate treatment arms, versus +0.3% with placebo.
Study limitations
No biopsies or clinical liver outcomes. 56.1% of 48-week MRI scans were missing; authors consider findings exploratory.
Who is behind the study?
- Identified authors
- Arun J. Sanyal, Lee M. Kaplan, Juan P. Frias, Bram Brouwers, Qiwei Wu, Melissa K. Thomas, Charles Harris, Nanette C. Schloot, Yu Du, Kieren J. Mather, Axel Haupt, Mark L. Hartman
- Funding and involvement
- Eli Lilly and Company; funder participated in design, data, analysis, interpretation and writing.
- Disclosed interests and verification limits
- Nine authors disclosed being Lilly employees and shareholders; others disclosed company relationships. This is not sponsor-independent evidence.
Terms explained
- MRI
- An imaging method used to estimate the amount of fat in the liver.
- Substudy
- An analysis of a group inside a larger trial, not a new independent population.
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