Dataset Information

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is robustly induced by ethanol and has a protective role in ethanol associated liver injury.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Excess ethanol consumption has serious pathologic consequences. In humans, repeated episodes of binge drinking can lead to liver damage and have adverse effects on other organs such as pancreas and brain. Long term chronic consumption of ethanol can also result in progressive alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a metabolic regulator with multiple physiologic functions. FGF21 is a novel biomarker for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in humans and limits hepatotoxicity in mice. Therefore, we explored the possibility that FGF21 plays a role in response to ethanol consumption in both humans and mice. METHODS:We used a binge drinking paradigm in humans to examine the effect of acute ethanol consumption on circulating FGF21. We adapted this paradigm to evaluate the acute response to ethanol in mice. We then examined the role of FGF21 on liver pathology in two models of chronic ethanol consumption in both wild type (WT) mice and mice lacking FGF21 (FGF21-KO). RESULTS:Acute ethanol consumption resulted in a robust induction of serum FGF21 after 6 h in both humans and mice. Serum ethanol peaked at 1 h in both species and was cleared by 6 h. Ethanol clearance was the same in WT and FGF21-KO mice, indicating that FGF21 does not play a major role in ethanol metabolism in a binge paradigm. When FGF21-KO mice were fed the Lieber-DeCarli diet, a high fat diet supplemented with ethanol, a higher mortality was observed compared to WT mice after 16 days on the diet. When FGF21-KO mice consumed 30% ethanol in drinking water, along with a normal chow diet, there was no mortality observed even after 16 weeks, but the FGF21-KO mice had significant liver pathology compared to WT mice. CONCLUSIONS:Acute or binge ethanol consumption significantly increases circulating FGF21 levels in both humans and mice. However, FGF21 does not play a role in acute ethanol clearance. In contrast, chronic ethanol consumption in the absence of FGF21 is associated with significant liver pathology alone or in combination with excess mortality, depending on the type of diet consumed with ethanol. This suggests that FGF21 protects against long term ethanol induced hepatic damage and may attenuate progression of alcoholic liver disease. Further study is required to assess the therapeutic potential of FGF21 in the treatment of alcoholic liver disease.

SUBMITTER: Desai BN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5681240 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is robustly induced by ethanol and has a protective role in ethanol associated liver injury.

Desai Bhavna N BN Singhal Garima G Watanabe Mikiko M Stevanovic Darko D Lundasen Thomas T Fisher Ffolliott M FM Mather Marie L ML Vardeh Hilde G HG Douris Nicholas N Adams Andrew C AC Nasser Imad A IA FitzGerald Garret A GA Flier Jeffrey S JS Skarke Carsten C Maratos-Flier Eleftheria E

Molecular metabolism 20170819 11

<h4>Objective</h4>Excess ethanol consumption has serious pathologic consequences. In humans, repeated episodes of binge drinking can lead to liver damage and have adverse effects on other organs such as pancreas and brain. Long term chronic consumption of ethanol can also result in progressive alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a metabolic regulator with multiple physiologic functions. FGF21 is a novel biomarker for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NA ...[more]

PMID: 29107287

Similar Datasets

Project description:UNLABELLED:In animals, high fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) states improve insulin resistance but induce bone loss. Whether FGF21 relates to bone mineral density (BMD) is unknown in humans. Contrary to prediction from animal findings, we found higher FGF21 levels associating with greater BMD in women, independent of age and body composition. INTRODUCTION:Recent laboratory studies suggest that FGF21 is involved in reciprocal regulation of bone and energy homeostasis. Systemic administration of FGF21 protects animals from obesity and diabetes but causes severe bone loss, smothering the enthusiasm over FGF21 as a potential antiobesity therapeutic. To date, there is no information on whether FGF21 relates to BMD in humans. We thus studied the relationship between plasma FGF21 levels and BMD in healthy adults. METHODS:Fasting plasma FGF21 levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and body composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS:Among 40 healthy volunteers (age 32?±?10 year, 16 women), men had significantly higher lean body mass (p?<?0.01) and total BMD (p?<?0.05), and lower percent body fat than women (p?<?0.01). Median plasma FGF21 levels were not different between the sexes. While there was no association between FGF21 concentrations and body composition in men, FGF21 levels correlated positively with fat mass (p?<?0.01) in women. In men, no significant correlation between FGF21 with BMD was observed. However, in women, FGF21 correlated positively with total BMD (R (2)?=?0.69, p?=?0.003) and spine BMD (R (2)?=?0.76, p?=?0.001); the correlation remained significant after adjusting for age, ethnicity, and body composition. CONCLUSIONS:This study reveals for the first time a strong positive association between plasma FGF21 levels and BMD in healthy women, suggesting the association between bone loss and high FGF21 states in animals may not be directly translated to humans in physiologic states. We hypothesize that FGF21 may increase bone mass particularly in women through paracrine mechanisms in the bone-adipose interface.

Project description:Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 21 has recently been shown to play a potential role in bile acid metabolism. We aimed to investigate the FGF21 response in an ethanol-induced acute-on-chronic liver injury (ACLI) model in Abcb4-/- mice with deficiency of the hepatobiliary phospholipid transporter. Total RNA was extracted from wild-type (WT, C57BL/6J) and Abcb4-/- (KO) mice, which were either fed a control diet (WT-Cont and KO-Cont groups; n = 28/group) or ethanol diet, followed by an acute ethanol binge (WT-EtOH and KO-EtOH groups; n = 28/group). A total of 58 human subjects were recruited into the study, including patients with alcohol-associated liver disease (AALD; n = 31) and healthy controls (n = 27). The hepatic and ileal expressions of genes involved in bile acid metabolism, plasma FGF levels, and bile acid and its precursors 7α- and 27-hydroxycholesterol (7α- and 27-OHC) concentrations were determined. Primary mouse hepatocytes were isolated for cell culture experiments. Alcohol feeding significantly induced plasma FGF21 and decreased hepatic Cyp7a1 levels. Hepatic expression levels of Fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (Fgfr1), Fgfr4, Farnesoid X-activated receptor (Fxr), and Small heterodimer partner (Shp) and plasma FGF15/FGF19 levels did not differ with alcohol challenge. Exogenous FGF21 treatment suppressed Cyp7a1 in a dose-dependent manner in vitro. AALD patients showed markedly higher FGF21 and lower 7α-OHC plasma levels while FGF19 did not differ. The simultaneous upregulation of FGF21 and downregulation of Cyp7a1 expressions upon chronic plus binge alcohol feeding together with the invariant plasma FGF15 and hepatic Shp and Fxr levels suggest the presence of a direct regulatory mechanism of FGF21 on bile acid homeostasis through inhibition of CYP7A1 by an FGF15-independent pathway in this ACLI model. Lay Summary: Alcohol challenge results in the upregulation of FGF21 and repression of Cyp7a1 expressions while circulating FGF15 and hepatic Shp and Fxr levels remain constant both in healthy and pre-injured livers, suggesting the presence of an alternative FGF15-independent regulatory mechanism of FGF21 on bile acid homeostasis through the inhibition of Cyp7a1.

Dataset Information

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is robustly induced by ethanol and has a protective role in ethanol associated liver injury.

Publications

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is robustly induced by ethanol and has a protective role in ethanol associated liver injury.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets