Project description:Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a broad spectrum of liver disorders ranging from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The choline-deficient L-amino acid-defined (CDAA) diet-induced NAFLD animal model has traditionally been used to understand the molecular mechanisms of disease development and progression. Although this animal model shows a similar course of disease progression to human NAFLD, it does not develop comorbidities such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, its relevance to human NAFLD (what aspects of the disease etiology are recapitulated in this model?) is not fully understood. We applied microarray analysis to characterize its pathophysiology, and evaluate the similarity across species.
Project description:Copper deficiency is closely associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We developed pseudo-natural flavonol (HQF) as novel ionophore for rapid intracellular copper delivery. The co-administration of HQF and copper has synergistic effects in restraining lipid droplet formation with unknown mechanism. Here, hepatic HepG2 cells were treated with palmitic acid (PA) to construct a NAFLD cell model, which was used to investigate the biological effects of HQF-mediated copper delivery on NAFLD intervention.
Project description:Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction characterized by reduced ATP synthesis. We applied the 2H2O-metabolic labeling approach to test the hypothesis that the reduced stability of oxidative phosphorylation proteins contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction in a diet-induced mouse model of NAFLD. A high fat diet containing cholesterol (a so-called Western diet (WD)) led to hepatic oxidative stress, steatosis, inflammation and mild fibrosis, all markers of NAFLD, in LDLR-/- mice. In addition, compared to controls, livers from NAFLD mice had reduced citrate synthase activity and ATP content, suggesting reduced mitochondrial oxidative capacity. Proteome dynamics analysis revealed that mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with reduced average half-lives of mitochondrial proteins in NAFLD mice (5.41±0.46 vs. 5.15±0.49 day, P<0.05). In particular, the WD reduced stability of oxidative phosphorylation subunits, including cytochrome c oxidase subunit 4 isoform 1 of complex III (5.9 ± 0.1 vs 3.4 ± 0.8 day), ATP synthase subunit α (6.3±0.4 vs. 5.5±0.4 day) and ATP synthase F(0) complex subunit B1 of complex V (8.5±0.6 vs. 6.5±0.2 day) (P<0.05). These changes were associated with impaired complex III and F0F1-ATP synthase activities, suggesting that increased degradation of mitochondrial proteins contributed to hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction in NAFLD mice. Autophagy, but not proteasomal degradation, contributed to increased clearance of hepatic mitochondrial proteins in NAFLD mice. In conclusion, the proteome dynamics approach suggests that alterations in mitochondrial proteome dynamics is involved in hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction in NAFLD.
Project description:<p>Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major public health problem due to the high incidence affecting approximately one-third of the world’s population. NAFLD is usually linked to obesity and excessive weight. A subset of patients with NAFLD express normal or low body mass index; thus, the condition is called nonobese NAFLD or lean NAFLD. However, patients and healthcare professionals have little awareness and understanding of NAFLD in nonobese individuals. Furthermore, preclinical results from nonobese animal models with NAFLD are unclear. Gut microbiota and their metabolites in nonobese/lean NAFLD patients differ from those in obese NAFLD patients. Therefore, we analyzed the biochemical indices, intestinal flora and intestinal metabolites in a nonobese NAFLD mouse model established using a methionine-choline deficient (MCD) diet. The significantly lean MCD mice had a remarkable fatty liver with lower serum triglyceride and free fatty acid levels as well as higher alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase levels than normal mice. 16s RNA sequencing of fecal DNA showed that the overall richness and diversity of the intestinal flora decreased in MCD mice, whereas the Firmicutes/Bacteroidota ratio was increased. <em>g_Tuzzerella, s_Bifidobacterium pseudolongum</em> and <em>s_Faecalibaculum rodentium</em> were the predominant species in nonobese NAFLD mice. Fecal metabolomics using LC-MS/MS revealed the potential biomarkers for the prognosis and diagnosis of nonobese NAFLD, including high levels of tyramine glucuronide, 9,12,13-TriHOME and pantetheine 4'-phosphate, and low levels of 3-carbamoyl-2-phenylpropionaldehyde, N-succinyl-L,L-2,6-diaminopimelate, 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol, homogentisic acid and estriol. Our findings could be useful to identify and develop drugs to treat nonobese NAFLD and lean NAFLD.</p>
Project description:Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alongside the global obesity epidemic, is rapidly emerging as a dominant liver disease etiology that leads to progressive liver fibrosis, its terminal stage, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We identified and validated a 133-gene signature (Prognostic Liver Signature for NAFLD [PLS-NAFLD]) to predict long-term HCC risk in patients with NAFLD. By analyzing PLS-NAFLD, IDO1 was identified as a potenial chemopreventive target for HCC from NAFLD. To test this hypothesis, we utilized our clinical-prognostic-signature-inducible cell culture model. We first confirmed that free fatty acid treatment (800 μM oleic acid and 400 μM palmitic acid) can induce PLS-NAFLD, then IDO1 inhibitor, epacadostat, can reverse the high-risk pattern in a dose-dependent manner.
Project description:The goal of this study was to determine the changes to cellular transcriptional programs following induction of intracellular lipid accumulation, with the aim of confirming the utility of this model for exploring mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of NAFLD. Comparisons with other publically available data confirm that the alterations we observe in mRNA expression are similar to those observed in both humans and rodents.