scholarly journals Role of Noncoding RNA in Development of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruixian Huang ◽  
Xiaoyan Duan ◽  
Jangao Fan ◽  
Guangming Li ◽  
Baocan Wang

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing in prevalence globally, but little is known about its specific molecular mechanisms. During the past decade, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been linked to NAFLD initiation and progression. They are a class of RNAs that play an important role in regulating gene expression despite not encoding proteins. This review summarizes recent research on the relationship between ncRNAs and NAFLD. We discussed the potential applicability of ncRNAs as a biomarker for early NAFLD diagnosis and assessment of disease severity. With further study, ncRNAs should prove to be valuable new targets for NAFLD treatment and benefit the development of noninvasive diagnostic methods.

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Hanson ◽  
Danielle Wilhelmsen ◽  
Johanna DiStefano

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) encompasses a spectrum of conditions ranging from hepatic steatosis to inflammation (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH) with or without fibrosis, in the absence of significant alcohol consumption. The presence of fibrosis in NASH patients is associated with greater liver-related morbidity and mortality; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of fibrosis and cirrhosis in NAFLD patients remain poorly understood. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as key contributors to biological processes that are underpinning the initiation and progression of NAFLD fibrosis. This review summarizes the experimental findings that have been obtained to date in animal models of liver fibrosis and NAFLD patients with fibrosis. We also discuss the potential applicability of circulating lncRNAs to serve as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of NAFLD fibrosis. A better understanding of the role played by lncRNAs in NAFLD fibrosis is critical for the identification of novel therapeutic targets for drug development and improved, noninvasive methods for disease diagnosis.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. e88005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Nobili ◽  
Guido Carpino ◽  
Anna Alisi ◽  
Rita De Vito ◽  
Antonio Franchitto ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (10) ◽  
pp. 1141-1148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Sid ◽  
Yaw L. Siow ◽  
Karmin O

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a spectrum of chronic liver conditions that are characterized by steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis, and liver injury. The global prevalence of NAFLD is rapidly increasing in proportion to the rising incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Because NAFLD is a multifaceted disorder with many underlying metabolic abnormalities, currently, there is no pharmacological agent that is therapeutically approved for the treatment of this disease. Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that plays an essential role in one-carbon transfer reactions involved in nucleic acid biosynthesis, methylation reactions, and sulfur-containing amino acid metabolism. The liver is the primary organ responsible for storage and metabolism of folates. Low serum folate levels have been observed in patients with obesity and diabetes. It has been reported that a low level of endogenous folates in rodents perturbs folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism, and may be associated with development of metabolic diseases such as NAFLD. This review highlights the biological role of folate in the progression of NAFLD and its associated metabolic complications including obesity and type 2 diabetes. Understanding the role of folate in metabolic disease may position this vitamin as a potential therapeutic for NAFLD.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyue Zhang ◽  
Yao Tang ◽  
Juan Huang ◽  
Hong Ren ◽  
Yixuan Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a kind of chronic liver disease among general population. Recent years, more and more new experiments have made the role of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) become clearer. In this meta-analysis, we analyzed the efficacy of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods We searched the Web of Science, Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane library databases for relavent studies published before March 1, 2019. We examined 134 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that investigated the effectiveness of UDCA in NAFLD against placebo or other treatments. Next, we conducted meta-analysis by Stata(version 12.0) to examine the change among several indices: Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), Alkaline phosphatase (AP), total bilirubin and albumin. Results Following the application of different inclusion and exclusion criteria, 9 articles with 1106 participants were finally selected. The forest plot displayed that UDCA treatment can significantly decrease the ALT levels among the NAFLD patients (SMD=0.17,95%CI [0.03 to 0.3], P=0.07). However, UDCA treatment did not significantly affect the AST, GGT, AP, total bilirubin and albumin levels. Further, the subgroup analyses suggested the significant role of UDCA treatment in different geographical regions, age group and treatment duration (P=0.003 in people from Europe, P=0.001 in people older than 50 years and P=0.008 in longer duration(>6 months)). Conclusion In this study, several indices we analyzed among 9 articles. UDCA treatment was found beneficial in lowering the ALT levels in NAFLD patients. The remaining indices like AST, GGT, AP showed non-significant changes in this analysis. This could be attributed for the insufficient number of trials because all parameters were not analyzed in each individual RCT. Therefore, future meta-analysis will be required to fully confirm and validate the efficacy of UDCA in NAFL.


2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (30) ◽  
pp. 3175
Author(s):  
Bing-Fang Wang ◽  
Pei-Ying Tian ◽  
Kun Feng ◽  
Fu-Rong Wu ◽  
Yong-Gao Lu ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (18) ◽  
pp. 9969
Author(s):  
Mariano Schiffrin ◽  
Carine Winkler ◽  
Laure Quignodon ◽  
Aurélien Naldi ◽  
Martin Trötzmüller ◽  
...  

Men with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are more exposed to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver fibrosis than women. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of NALFD sex dimorphism are unclear. We combined gene expression, histological and lipidomic analyses to systematically compare male and female liver steatosis. We characterized hepatosteatosis in three independent mouse models of NAFLD, ob/ob and lipodystrophic fat-specific (PpargFΔ/Δ) and whole-body PPARγ-null (PpargΔ/Δ) mice. We identified a clear sex dimorphism occurring only in PpargΔ/Δ mice, with females showing macro- and microvesicular hepatosteatosis throughout their entire life, while males had fewer lipid droplets starting from 20 weeks. This sex dimorphism in hepatosteatosis was lost in gonadectomized PpargΔ/Δ mice. Lipidomics revealed hepatic accumulation of short and highly saturated TGs in females, while TGs were enriched in long and unsaturated hydrocarbon chains in males. Strikingly, sex-biased genes were particularly perturbed in both sexes, affecting lipid metabolism, drug metabolism, inflammatory and cellular stress response pathways. Most importantly, we found that the expression of key sex-biased genes was severely affected in all the NAFLD models we tested. Thus, hepatosteatosis strongly affects hepatic sex-biased gene expression. With NAFLD increasing in prevalence, this emphasizes the urgent need to specifically address the consequences of this deregulation in humans.


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