scholarly journals Understanding lipotoxicity in NAFLD pathogenesis: is CD36 a key driver?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Rada ◽  
Águeda González-Rodríguez ◽  
Carmelo García-Monzón ◽  
Ángela M. Valverde

Abstract Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. NAFLD stages range from simple steatosis (NAFL) to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which can progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. One of the crucial events clearly involved in NAFLD progression is the lipotoxicity resulting from an excessive fatty acid (FFA) influx to hepatocytes. Hepatic lipotoxicity occurs when the capacity of the hepatocyte to manage and export FFAs as triglycerides (TGs) is overwhelmed. This review provides succinct insights into the molecular mechanisms responsible for lipotoxicity in NAFLD, including ER and oxidative stress, autophagy, lipoapotosis and inflammation. In addition, we highlight the role of CD36/FAT fatty acid translocase in NAFLD pathogenesis. Up-to-date, it is well known that CD36 increases FFA uptake and, in the liver, it drives hepatosteatosis onset and might contribute to its progression to NASH. Clinical studies have reinforced the significance of CD36 by showing increased content in the liver of NAFLD patients. Interestingly, circulating levels of a soluble form of CD36 (sCD36) are abnormally elevated in NAFLD patients and positively correlate with the histological grade of hepatic steatosis. In fact, the induction of CD36 translocation to the plasma membrane of the hepatocytes may be a determining factor in the physiopathology of hepatic steatosis in NAFLD patients. Given all these data, targeting the fatty acid translocase CD36 or some of its functional regulators may be a promising therapeutic approach for the prevention and treatment of NAFLD.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karuna Rasineni ◽  
Clayton W. Jordan ◽  
Paul G. Thomes ◽  
Jacy L. Kubik ◽  
Elizabeth M. Staab ◽  
...  

Background: Fatty liver, a major health problem worldwide, is the earliest pathological change in the progression of alcohol-associated (AFL) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFL). Though the causes of AFL and NAFL differ, both share similar histological and some common pathophysiological characteristics. In this study, we sought to examine mechanisms responsible for lipid dynamics in liver and adipose tissue in the setting of AFL and NAFL in response to 48 h of fasting.Methods: Male rats were fed Lieber-DeCarli liquid control or alcohol-containing diet (AFL model), chow or high-fat pellet diet (NAFL model). After 6–8 weeks of feeding, half of the rats from each group were fasted for 48 h while the other half remained on their respective diets. Following sacrifice, blood, adipose, and the liver were collected for analysis.Results: Though rats fed AFL and NAFL diets both showed fatty liver, the physiological mechanisms involved in the development of each was different. Here, we show that increased hepatic de novo fatty acid synthesis, increased uptake of adipose-derived free fatty acids, and impaired triglyceride breakdown contribute to the development of AFL. In the case of NAFL, however, increased dietary fatty acid uptake is the major contributor to hepatic steatosis. Likewise, the response to starvation in the two fatty liver disease models also varied. While there was a decrease in hepatic steatosis after fasting in ethanol-fed rats, the control, chow and high-fat diet-fed rats showed higher levels of hepatic steatosis than pair-fed counterparts. This diverse response was a result of increased adipose lipolysis in all experimental groups except fasted ethanol-fed rats.Conclusion: Even though AFL and NAFL are nearly histologically indistinguishable, the physiological mechanisms that cause hepatic fat accumulation are different as are their responses to starvation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 2325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua Li ◽  
Wonbeak Yoo ◽  
Hye-Mi Park ◽  
Soo-Youn Lim ◽  
Dong-Ha Shin ◽  
...  

Arazyme, a metalloprotease from the spider Nephila clavata, exerts hepatoprotective activity in CCL4-induced acute hepatic injury. This study investigated the hepatoprotective effects in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-like C57BL/6J mice. The mice were randomly divided into four groups (n = 10/group): the normal diet group, the HFD group, the arazyme group (HFD with 0.025% arazyme), and the milk thistle (MT) group (HFD with 0.1% MT). Dietary supplementation of arazyme for 13 weeks significantly lowered plasma triglyceride (TG) and non-esterified fatty acid levels. Suppression of HFD-induced hepatic steatosis in the arazyme group was caused by the reduced hepatic TG and total cholesterol (TC) contents. Arazyme supplementation decreased hepatic lipogenesis-related gene expression, sterol regulatory element-binding transcription protein 1 (Srebf1), fatty acid synthase (Fas), acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (Acc1), stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (Scd1), Scd2, glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (Gpam), diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (Dgat1), and Dgat2. Arazyme directly reduced palmitic acid (PA)-induced TG accumulation in HepG2 cells. Arazyme suppressed macrophage infiltration and tumor necrosis factor α (Tnfa), interleukin-1β (Il1b), and chemokine-ligand-2 (Ccl2) expression in the liver, and inhibited secretion of TNFα and expression of inflammatory mediators, Tnfa, Il1b, Ccl2, Ccl3, Ccl4, and Ccl5, in PA-induced RAW264.7 cells. Arazyme effectively protected hepatic steatosis and steatohepatitis by inhibiting SREBP-1-mediated lipid accumulation and macrophage-mediated inflammation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5528
Author(s):  
Theodomir Dusabimana ◽  
Eun Jung Park ◽  
Jihyun Je ◽  
Kyuho Jeong ◽  
Seung Pil Yun ◽  
...  

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic metabolic liver disease associated with obesity and insulin resistance. Activation of the purinergic receptor P2Y2R has been reported to promote adipogenesis, inflammation and dyslipidemia in adipose tissues in obese mice. However, the role of P2Y2R and its mechanisms in NAFLD remain unknown. We hypothesized that P2Y2R deficiency may play a protective role in NAFLD by modulating lipid metabolism in the liver. In this study, we fed wild type and P2Y2R knockout mice with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks and analyzed metabolic phenotypes. First, P2Y2R deficiency effectively improved insulin resistance with a reduction in body weight and plasma insulin. Second, P2Y2R deficiency attenuated hepatic lipid accumulation and injury with reduced alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels. Third, P2Y2R deficiency decreased the expression of fatty acid synthesis mediators (cluster of differentiation (CD36), fatty acid synthase (FAS), and stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1)); and increased the expression of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), a lipolytic enzyme. Mechanistically, P2Y2R deficiency increased the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity to improve mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) by regulating acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A)-mediated FAO pathway. In addition, P2Y2R deficiency increased peroxisome proliferator-activated gamma co-activator-1α (PGC-1α)-mediated mitochondrial biogenesis. Conclusively, P2Y2R deficiency ameliorated HFD-induced hepatic steatosis by enhancing FAO through AMPK signaling and PGC-1α pathway, suggesting P2Y2R as a promising therapeutic target for NAFLD.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Zhou ◽  
Mingning Ding ◽  
Yiqing Gu ◽  
Guifang Fan ◽  
Chuanyang Liu ◽  
...  

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), manifested as the aberrant accumulation of lipids in hepatocytes and inflammation, has become an important cause of advanced liver diseases and hepatic malignancies worldwide. However, no effective therapy has been approved yet. Aurantio-obtusin (AO) is a main bioactive compound isolated from Cassia semen that has been identified with multiple pharmacological activities, including improving adiposity and insulin resistance. However, the ameliorating effects of AO on diet-induced NAFLD and underlying mechanisms remained poorly elucidated. Our results demonstrated that AO significantly alleviated high-fat diet and glucose-fructose water (HFSW)-induced hepatic steatosis in mice and oleic acid and palmitic acid (OAPA)-induced lipid accumulation in hepatocytes. Remarkably, AO was found to distinctly promote autophagy flux and influence the degradation of lipid droplets by inducing AMPK phosphorylation. Additionally, the induction of AMPK triggered TFEB activation and promoted fatty acid oxidation (FAO) by activating PPARα and ACOX1 and decreasing the expression of genes involved in lipid biosynthesis. Meanwhile, the lipid-lowing effect of AO was significantly prevented by the pretreatment with inhibitors of autophagy, PPARα or ACOX1, respectively. Collectively, our study suggests that AO ameliorates hepatic steatosis via AMPK/autophagy- and AMPK/TFEB-mediated suppression of lipid accumulation, which opens new opportunities for pharmacological treatment of NAFLD and associated complications.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Lan Qu ◽  
Chuan-Huai Deng ◽  
Qing Luo ◽  
Xue-Ying Shang ◽  
Jiao-Xiang Wu ◽  
...  

AbstractNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and steatohepatitis (NASH) have become a worldwide health concern because of lifestyle changes, but it is still lack of specific therapeutic strategies as the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Our previous study indicated that deficiency of Arid1a, a key component of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, initiated mouse steatohepatitis, implying that Arid1a might be essentially required for the integrity of hepatic lipid metabolism. However, the exact mechanisms of the pathological process due to Arid1a loss are unclear. In the present work, we show that hepatocyte-specific deletion of Arid1a significantly increases susceptibility to develop hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance in mice fed with high-fat diet (HFD), along with the aggravated inflammatory responses marked by increment of serum alanine amino transferase (AST), aspartate amino transferase (AST) and TNFα. Mechanistically, Arid1a deficiency leads to the reduction of chromatin modification characteristic of transcriptional activation on multiple metabolic genes, especially Cpt1a and Acox1, two rate-limiting enzyme genes for fatty acid oxidation. Furthermore, our data indicated that Arid1a loss promotes hepatic steatosis by downregulating PPARα, thereby impairing fatty acid oxidation which leads to lipid accumulation and insulin resistance. These findings reveal that targeting ARID1a might be a promising therapeutic strategy for NAFLD, NASH and insulin resistance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Chen ◽  
Yi Tang ◽  
Shen Chen ◽  
Wen-Hua Ling ◽  
Qing Wang

Background and aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a common chronic liver disease in the world. Simple steatosis is the early phase of NAFLD. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of steatosis have not yet been fully elucidated. Methods: Two public datasets (GSE48452 and GSE89632) through the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the development of steatosis. A total of 72 participants including 38 normal histological controls and 34 simple steatosis patients were included in this study. GO, KEGG and PPI network analysis were performed to explore the function of DEGs. The results were further confirmed in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice and oleate-treated HepG2 cells. Results: Total 57 DEGs including 31 up- and 26 down-regulated genes between simple steatosis patients and healthy controls were determined. GO and KEGG analysis showed that most of DEGs were enriched in the ligand-receptor signaling pathways. PPI network construction was used to identify the hub genes of the DEGs. MYC, ANXA2, GDF15, AGTR1, NAMPT, LEPR, IGFBP-2, IL1RN, MMP7 and APLNR were identified as hub genes. And IGFBP-2 expression was found to be reversely associated with hepatic steatosis, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR index and ALT levels. In HFD-fed mice, hepatic IGFBP-2 was also downregulated and negatively associated with hepatic triglyceride levels. Moreover, overexpression IGFBP-2 ameliorated the oleate induced accumulation of triglycerides in hepatocytes. Conclusions: This study identified novel gene signatures in the hepatic steatosis and will provide new understanding and molecular clues of hepatic steatosis.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Ping-Hsiao Shih ◽  
Sheng-Jie Shiue ◽  
Chun-Nan Chen ◽  
Sheng-Wei Cheng ◽  
Hsin-Yi Lin ◽  
...  

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the emerging cause of chronic liver disease globally and lack of approved therapies. Here, we investigated the feasibility of combinatorial effects of low molecular weight fucoidan and high stability fucoxanthin (LMF-HSFx) as a therapeutic approach against NAFLD. We evaluated the inhibitory effects of LMF-HSFx or placebo in 42 NAFLD patients for 24 weeks and related mechanism in high fat diet (HFD) mice model and HepaRGTM cell line. We found that LMF-HSFx reduces the relative values of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total cholesterol, triglyceride, fasting blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c in NAFLD patients. For lipid metabolism, LMF-HSFx reduces the scores of controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) and increases adiponectin and leptin expression. Interestingly, it reduces liver fibrosis in NAFLD patients, either. The proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-6 and interferon-γ are reduced in LMF-HSFx group. In HFD mice, LMF-HSFx attenuates hepatic lipotoxicity and modulates adipogenesis. Additionally, LMF-HSFx modulates SIRI-PGC-1 pathway in HepaRG cells under palmitic acid-induced lipotoxicity environment. Here, we describe that LMF-HSFx ameliorated hepatic steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis and insulin resistance in NAFLD patients. LMF-HSFx may modulate leptin-adiponectin axis in adipocytes and hepatocytes, then regulate lipid and glycogen metabolism, decrease insulin resistance and is against NAFLD.


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