scholarly journals The kielin/chordin-like protein KCP attenuates nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice

2016 ◽  
Vol 311 (4) ◽  
pp. G587-G598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Soofi ◽  
Katherine I. Wolf ◽  
Egon J. Ranghini ◽  
Mohammad A. Amin ◽  
Gregory R. Dressler

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common cause of chronic liver disease and is increasing with the rising rate of obesity in the developed world. Signaling pathways known to influence the rate of lipid deposition in liver, known as hepatic steatosis, include the transforming growth factor (TGF) superfamily, which function through the SMAD second messengers. The kielin/chordin-like protein (KCP) is a large secreted protein that can enhance bone morphogenetic protein signaling while suppressing TGF-β signaling in cells and in genetically modified mice. In this report, we show that aging KCP mutant ( Kcp −/−) mice are increasingly susceptible to developing hepatic steatosis and liver fibrosis. When young mice are put on a high-fat diet, Kcp −/− mice are also more susceptible to developing liver pathology, compared with their wild-type littermates. Furthermore, mice that express a Pepck-KCP transgene ( Kcp Tg) in the liver are resistant to developing liver pathology even when fed a high-fat diet. Analyses of liver tissues reveal a significant reduction of P-Smad3, consistent with a role for KCP in suppressing TGF-β signaling. Transcriptome analyses show that livers from Kcp −/− mice fed a normal diet are more like wild-type livers from mice fed a high-fat diet. However, the KCP transgene can suppress many of the changes in liver gene expression that are due to a high-fat diet. These data demonstrate that shifting the TGF-β signaling paradigm with the secreted regulatory protein KCP can significantly alter the liver pathology in aging mice and in diet-induced NAFLD.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Doo Jin Choi ◽  
Seong Cheol Kim ◽  
Gi Eun Park ◽  
Bo-Ram Choi ◽  
Dae Young Lee ◽  
...  

The present study aimed to evaluate the potential synergistic and protective effects of ALM16, a mixture of Astragalus membranaceus (AM) and Lithospermum erythrorhizon (LE) extract in a ratio of 7 : 3, against hepatic steatosis in high fat diet (HFD)-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) mice. Forty-eight mice were randomly divided into eight groups and orally administered daily for 6 weeks with a normal diet (ND) or high fat diet alone (HFD), HFD with AM (HFD + 100 mg/kg AM extract), HFD with LE (HFD + 100 mg/kg LE extract), HFD with ALM16 (HFD + 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg ALM16), or HFD with MT (HFD + 100 mg/kg Milk thistle extract) as a positive control. ALM16 significantly decreased the body and liver weight, serum and hepatic lipid profiles, including triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL), and serum glucose levels, compared to the HFD group. Moreover, ALM16 significantly ameliorated the HFD-induced increased hepatic injury markers, including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT)-1. Furthermore, as compared to the mice fed HFD alone, ALM16 increased the levels of phosphorylated AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (p-ACC), thereby upregulating the expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT)-1 and downregulating the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)-1c and fatty acid synthase (FAS). These results demonstrated that ALM16 markedly inhibited HFD-induced hepatic steatosis in NAFLD mice by modulating AMPK and ACC signaling pathways, and may be more effective than the single extracts of AM or LE.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ningjing Zhang ◽  
Junxian Tao ◽  
Lijun Gao ◽  
Yan Bi ◽  
Ping Li ◽  
...  

This study aimed to determine whether modulation of the gut microbiota structure by liraglutide helps improve nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats on a high-fat diet (HFD). Rats were administered an HFD for 12 weeks to induce NAFLD and then administered liraglutide for 4 additional weeks. Next-generation sequencing and multivariate analysis were performed to assess structural changes in the gut microbiota. Liraglutide attenuated excessive hepatic ectopic fat deposition, maintained intestinal barrier integrity, and alleviated metabolic endotoxemia in HFD rats. Liraglutide significantly altered the overall structure of the HFD-disrupted gut microbiota and gut microbial composition in HFD rats in comparison to those on a normal diet. An abundance of 100 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were altered upon liraglutide administration, with 78 OTUs associated with weight gain or inflammation. Twenty-three OTUs positively correlated with hepatic steatosis-related parameters were decreased upon liraglutide intervention, while 5 OTUs negatively correlated with hepatic steatosis-related parameters were increased. These results suggest that liraglutide-mediated attenuation of NAFLD partly results from structural changes in gut microbiota associated with hepatic steatosis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 306 (6) ◽  
pp. G496-G504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akihiro Asai ◽  
Pauline M. Chou ◽  
Heng-Fu Bu ◽  
Xiao Wang ◽  
M. Sambasiva Rao ◽  
...  

Liver steatosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is affected by genetics and diet. It is associated with insulin resistance (IR) in hepatic and peripheral tissues. Here, we aimed to characterize the severity of diet-induced steatosis, obesity, and IR in two phylogenetically distant mouse strains, C57BL/6J and DBA/2J. To this end, mice (male, 8 wk old) were fed a high-fat and high-carbohydrate (HFHC) or control diet for 16 wk followed by the application of a combination of classic physiological, biochemical, and pathological studies to determine obesity and hepatic steatosis. Peripheral IR was characterized by measuring blood glucose level, serum insulin level, homeostasis model assessment of IR, glucose intolerance, insulin intolerance, and AKT phosphorylation in adipose tissues, whereas the level of hepatic IR was determined by measuring insulin-triggered hepatic AKT phosphorylation. We discovered that both C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice developed obesity to a similar degree without the feature of liver inflammation after being fed an HFHC diet for 16 wk. C57BL/6J mice in the HFHC diet group exhibited severe pan-lobular steatosis, a marked increase in hepatic triglyceride levels, and profound peripheral IR. In contrast, DBA/2J mice in the HFHC diet group developed only a mild degree of pericentrilobular hepatic steatosis that was associated with moderate changes in peripheral IR. Interestingly, both C57BL/6J and DBA/2J developed severe hepatic IR after HFHC diet treatment. Collectively, these data suggest that the severity of diet-induced hepatic steatosis is correlated to the level of peripheral IR, not with the severity of obesity and hepatic IR. Peripheral rather than hepatic IR is a dominant factor of pathophysiology in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.


Aging ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 8960-8974
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Qian ◽  
Ting Wang ◽  
Jiahong Gong ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Xuyan Chen ◽  
...  

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