Project description:Chronic liver diseases are worldwide on the rise. Due to the rapidly increasing incidence, in particular in Western countries, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is gaining importance. As the disease progresses it can develop into hepatocellular carcinoma. Lipid accumulation in hepatocytes has been identified as the characteristic structural change in NAFLD development, but the molecular mechanisms responsible for disease development remained unresolved. Here, we uncover a strong downregulation of the PI3K-AKT pathway and an upregulation of the MAPK pathway in primary hepatocytes from a preclinical model fed with a Western diet (WD). Dynamic pathway modeling of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) signal transduction combined with global proteomics identifies that an elevated basal MET phosphorylation rate is the main driver of altered signaling leading to increased proliferation of WD-hepatocytes. Model-adaptation to patient-derived hepatocytes reveals a patient-specific variability in basal MET phosphorylation, which correlates with the outcome of patients after liver surgery. Thus, dysregulated basal MET phosphorylation could be an indicator for the health status of the liver and thereby inform on the risk of a patient to suffer from liver failure after surgery.
Project description:mRNA expression was compared between wild type and hepatocyte-specific caveolin-1 knockout livers in healthy and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) mice mRNA expression was compared between gender
Project description:The extent to which PTP (Protein tyrosine phosphatase) expression may be evident and contribute to the progression to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in obesity and the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the total proteome and PTP expression patterns, using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis of human liver samples. The cohort included liver biopsies obtained from individuals presenting varying degrees of liver disease, encompassing steatosis, Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), HCC, and control samples from individuals without evidence of liver damage.
Project description:Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) encompasses a spectrum of disease that ranges from simple steatosis, to inflammatory form non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis, and up to hepatocellular carcinoma. While NASH usually takes decades to develop at a rate of one stage per seven years, in the case of post-trasplant NASH (pt-NASH) develops fibrosis much more rapidly, with almost 50% of liver transplant recipients presenting stage 3 fibrosis by 5 years post-transplant. Archived fresh-frozen transplanted liver biopsy samples from four liver biopsy samples with evidence of NASH (2 recurrent and 2 de novo), two with simple steatosis (both de novo), and five with normal histology as controls had their transcriptome sequenced in two batches for deeper coverage.
Project description:The molecular features of hepatocellular carcinoma arising from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD-HCC) are not well known. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which NAFLD-HCC survives in a fat-rich environment. We found that caveolin (CAV)-1 was overexpressed in clinical specimens from NAFLD-HCC patients. HepG2, HLE, and HuH-7 HCC cell lines showed decreased proliferation in the presence of the saturated fatty acids palmitic acid and stearic acid, although only HLE cells expressed high levels of CAV-1. HLE cells treated with oleic acid (OA) showed robust proliferation, whereas CAV-null HepG2 cells showed reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis. CAV-1 knockdown in HLE cells attenuated the OA-induced increase in proliferation and enhanced apoptosis. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the levels of OA-containing ceramide, a pro-apoptotic factor, were higher in HepG2 and CAV-1-deficient HLE cells than in HLE cells, suggesting that CAV-1 inhibits apoptosis by decreasing the level of OA-containing ceramide. These results indicate that CAV-1 is important for NAFLD-HCC survival in fatty acid-rich environments and is a potential therapeutic target.
Project description:Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is now considered the most common form of chronic liver disease. It is a complex metabolic disease that silently progresses into non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In fact, NASH is the tipping point for pericellular fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Despite being a complex metabolic disease, identification of the metabolic readout that functions in metabolic pathway perpetuation for HCC progression from NASH is still incompletely understood. With the aid of LC MS/MS this study unveiled the metabolic fingerprint of NASH and HCC-NASH patients and it illustrates a detailed map for the most predominant reprogrammed metabolic pathways that target HCC development from NASH. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24010210
Project description:Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death world-wide. The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been rising, along with an increase in NAFLD-related HCC. To investigate cell-type composition in NAFLD and HCC, we performed single-nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq) of patients with fatty liver disease in order to transcriptionally characterize cell-types in an unbiased manner. Out data reveal a large amount of heterogeneity in hepatocyte populations, as well as recovering all expected liver cell-types.
Project description:Immune dysregulation and inflammation by hepatic-resident leukocytes is considered a key step in disease progression of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) toward cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we provide a robust protocol for isolation and characterization of liver-resident immune cells from fine needle biopsies of rodent model and human. Various downstream applications can then be applied to gain an appreciation of the functional activity of liver-resident leukocyte populations.