Mitochondrial Function in Patients With Severe Liver Disease

The researchers will recruit patients with severe liver disease at Parkland Hospital where the procedure will be performed. Age-, gender- and race-matched healthy subjects will be recruited from general population, and the procedure will be performed at the procedure room of the AIRC. Patients at Parkland will be screened and selected by Dr. Jeffrey Browning and Dr. Rodney Infante. After ingestion of 25 mg/kg \[U-13C3\]glycerol plus 25 mg/kg unlabeled glycerol in water (total glycerol dose, 50 mg/kg), blood will be drawn at +60 and +120 min. Healthy subjects will make two visits to the AIRC for screening and study procedures. The screening visit will take an hour and the study visit will take 3 hours. Volunteers will be made comfortable in the procedure room of the Research Center. All the study procedures at both Parkland and AIRC will be under the direction of the principal investigator, Dr. Jeffrey Browning.