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Cancer cachexia, of which the most notable symptom is severe and rapid weight loss, is present in the majority of patients with advanced cancer. Inflammatory mediators play an important role in the development of cachexia, envisaged as a chronic inflammatory syndrome. The white adipose tissue (WAT) is one of the first compartments affected in cancer cachexia and suffers a high rate of lipolysis. It secretes several cytokines capable of directly regulating intermediate metabolism. A common pathway in the regulation of the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in WAT is the activation of the nuclear transcription factor kappa-B (NF-κB). We have examined the gene expression of the subunits NF-κBp65 and NF-κBp50, as well as NF-κBp65 and NF-κBp50 binding, the gene expression of pro-inflammatory mediators under NF-κB control (IL-1β, IL-6, INF-γ, TNF-α, MCP-1), and its inhibitory protein, nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells inhibitor, alpha (IκB-α). The observational study involved 35 patients (control group, n = 12 and cancer group, n = 23, further divided into cachectic and non-cachectic). NF-κBp65 and its target genes expression (TNF-α, IL-1β, MCP-1 and IκB-α) were significantly higher in cachectic cancer patients. Moreover, NF-κBp65 gene expression correlated positively with the expression of its target genes. The results strongly suggest that the NF-κB pathway plays a role in the promotion of WAT inflammation during cachexia.
While the impact of dietary cholesterol on the progression of atherosclerosis has probably been overestimated, increasing evidence suggests that dietary cholesterol might favor the transition from blunt steatosis to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), especially in combination with high fat diets. It is poorly understood how cholesterol alone or in combination with other dietary lipid components contributes to the development of lipotoxicity. The current study demonstrated that liver damage caused by dietary cholesterol in mice was strongly enhanced by a high fat diet containing soybean oil-derived ω6-poly-unsaturated fatty acids (ω6-PUFA), but not by a lard-based high fat diet containing mainly saturated fatty acids. In contrast to the lard-based diet the soybean oil-based diet augmented cholesterol accumulation in hepatocytes, presumably by impairing cholesterol-eliminating pathways. The soybean oil-based diet enhanced cholesterol-induced mitochondrial damage and amplified the ensuing oxidative stress, probably by peroxidation of poly-unsaturated fatty acids. This resulted in hepatocyte death, recruitment of inflammatory cells, and fibrosis, and caused a transition from steatosis to NASH, doubling the NASH activity score. Thus, the recommendation to reduce cholesterol intake, in particular in diets rich in ω6-PUFA, although not necessary to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, might be sensible for patients suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) including the severe form with steatohepatitis (NASH) are highly prevalent ailments to which no approved pharmacological treatment exists. Dietary intervention aiming at 10% weight reduction is efficient but fails due to low compliance. Increase in physical activity is an alternative that improved NAFLD even in the absence of weight reduction. The underlying mechanisms are unclear and cannot be studied in humans. Here, a rat NAFLD model was developed that reproduces many facets of the diet-induced NAFLD in humans. The impact of endurance exercise was studied in this model. Male Wistar rats received control chow or a NASH-inducing diet rich in fat, cholesterol, and fructose. Both diet groups were subdivided into a sedentary and an endurance exercise group. Animals receiving the NASH-inducing diet gained more body weight, got glucose intolerant and developed a liver pathology with steatosis, hepatocyte hypertrophy, inflammation and fibrosis typical of NAFLD or NASH. Contrary to expectations, endurance exercise did not improve the NASH activity score and even enhanced hepatic inflammation. However, endurance exercise attenuated the hepatic cholesterol overload and the ensuing severe oxidative stress. In addition, exercise improved glucose tolerance possibly in part by induction of hepatic FGF21 production.
In a subset of patients, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is complicated by cell death and inflammation resulting in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which may progress to fibrosis and subsequent organ failure. Apart from cytokines, prostaglandins, in particular prostaglandin E-2 (PGE(2)), play a pivotal role during inflammatory processes. Expression of the key enzymes of PGE(2) synthesis, cyclooxygenase 2 and microsomal PGE synthase 1 (mPGES-1), was increased in human NASH livers in comparison to controls and correlated with the NASH activity score. Both enzymes were also induced in NASH-diet-fed wild-type mice, resulting in an increase in hepatic PGE(2) concentration that was completely abrogated in mPGES-1-deficient mice. PGE(2) is known to inhibit TNF-alpha synthesis in macrophages. A strong infiltration of monocyte-derived macrophages was observed in NASH-diet-fed mice, which was accompanied with an increase in hepatic TNF-alpha expression. Due to the impaired PGE(2) production, TNF-alpha expression increased much more in livers of mPGES-1-deficient mice or in the peritoneal macrophages of these mice. The increased levels of TNF-alpha resulted in an enhanced IL-1 beta production, primarily in hepatocytes, and augmented hepatocyte apoptosis. In conclusion, attenuation of PGE(2) production by mPGES-1 ablation enhanced the TNF-alpha-triggered inflammatory response and hepatocyte apoptosis in diet-induced NASH.
Prostaglandins, released from Kupffer cells, have been shown to mediate the increase in hepatic glycogenolysis by various stimuli such as zymosan, endotoxin, immune complexes, and anaphylotoxin C3a involving prostaglandin (PG) receptors coupled to phospholipase C via a G(0) protein. PGs also decreased glucagon-stimulated glycogenolysis in hepatocytes by a different signal chain involving PGE(2) receptors coupled to adenylate cyclase via a G(i) protein (EP(3) receptors). The source of the prostaglandins for this latter glucagon-antagonistic action is so far unknown. This study provides evidence that Kupffer cells may be one source: in Kupffer cells, maintained in primary culture for 72 hours, glucagon (0.1 to 10 nmol/ L) increased PGE(2), PGF(2 alpha), and PGD(2) synthesis rapidly and transiently. Maximal prostaglandin concentrations were reached after 5 minutes. Glucagon (1 nmol/L) elevated the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and inositol triphosphate (InsP(3)) levels in Kupffer cells about fivefold and twofold, respectively. The increase in glyco gen phosphorylase activity elicited by 1 nmol/L glucagon was about twice as large in monocultures of hepatocytes than in cocultures of hepatocytes and Kupffer cells with the same hepatocyte density. Treatment of cocultures with 500 mu mol/L acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) to irreversibly inhibit cyclooxygenase (PGH-synthase) 30 minutes before addition of glucagon abolished this difference. These data support the hypothesis that PGs produced by Kupffer cells in response to glucagon might participate in a feedback loop inhibiting glucagon-stimulated glycogenolysis in hepatocytes.
Human anaphylatoxin C3a had previously been shown to increase glycogenolysis in perfused rat liver and prostanoid formation in rat liver macrophages. Surprisingly, human C5a, which in other systems elicited stronger responses than C3a, did not increase glycogenolysis in perfused rat liver. Species incompatibilities within the experimental system had been supposed to be the reason. The current study supports this hypothesis: (1) In rat liver macrophages that had been maintained in primary culture for 72 h recombinant rat anaphylatoxin C5a in concentrations between 0.1 and 10 pg/ml increased the formation of thromboxane A₂, prostaglandin D₂, E₂ and F₂α6- to 12-fold over basal within 10 min. In contrast, human anaphylatoxin C5a did not increase prostanoid formation in rat Kupffer cells. (2) The increase in prostanoid formation by recombinant rat C5a was specific. It was inhibited by a neutralizing monoclonal antibody. (3) In co-cultures of rat hepatocytes and rat Kupffer cells but not in hepatocyte mono-cultures recombinant rat C5a increased glycogen phosphorylase activity 3-fold over basal. This effect was inhibited by incubation of the co-cultures with 500 μM acetylsalicyclic acid. Thus, C5a generated either locally in the liver or systemically e.g. in the course of sepsis, may increase hepatic glycogenolysis by a prostanoid-mediated intercellular communication between Kupffer cells and hepatocytes.
In order to improve a recently established cell-based assay to assess the potency of botulinum neurotoxin, neuroblastoma-derived SiMa cells and induced pluripotent stem-cells (iPSC) were modified to incorporate the coding sequence of a reporter luciferase into a genetic safe harbor utilizing CRISPR/Cas9. A novel method, the double-control quantitative copy number PCR (dc-qcnPCR), was developed to detect off-target integrations of donor DNA. The donor DNA insertion success rate and targeted insertion success rate were analyzed in clones of each cell type. The dc-qcnPCR reliably quantified the copy number in both cell lines. The probability of incorrect donor DNA integration was significantly increased in SiMa cells in comparison to the iPSCs. This can possibly be explained by the lower bundled relative gene expression of a number of double-strand repair genes (BRCA1, DNA2, EXO1, MCPH1, MRE11, and RAD51) in SiMa clones than in iPSC clones. The dc-qcnPCR offers an efficient and cost-effective method to detect off-target CRISPR/Cas9-induced donor DNA integrations.
Rat serum, in which the complement sytem had been activated by incubation with zymosan, increased the glucose and lactate output, and reduced and redistributed the flow in isolated perfused rat liver clearly more than the control serum. Heat inactivation of the rat serum prior to zymosan incubation abolished this difference. Metabolic and hemodynamic alterations caused by the activated serum were dose dependent. They were almost completely inhibited by the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin and by the thromboxane antagonist 4-[2-(4-chlorobenzenesulfonamide)-ethyl]-benzene-acetica cid (BM 13505), but clearly less efficiently by the 5’-lipoxygenase inhibitor nordihydroguaiaretic acid and the leukotriene antagonist N-{3-[3-(4-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propyl-phenoxy)-propoxy]-4-chlorine-6-methyl-phenyl}-1H-tetrazole-5-carboxamide sodium salt (CGP 35949 B). Control serum and to a much larger extent complement-activated serum, caused an overflow of thromboxane B₂ and prostaglandin F₂α into the hepatic vein. It is concluded that the activated complement system of rat serum can influence liver metabolism and hemodynamics via release from nonparenchymal liver cells of thromboxane and prostaglandins, the latter of which can in turn act on the parenchymal cells.
Rat hepatocytes have previously been reported to possess prostaglandin E₂ receptors of the EP₃-type (EP₃-receptors) that inhibit glucagonstimulated glycogenolysis by decreasing cAMP. Here, the isolation of a functional EP₃ϐ receptor cDNA clone from a rat hepatocyte cDNA library is reported. This clone can be translated into a 362-amino-acid protein, that displays over 95% homology to the EP₃ϐ receptor from mouse mastocytoma. The amino- and carboxy-terminal region of the protein are least conserved. Transiently transfected HEK 293 cells expressed a single binding site for PGE₂ with an apparent Kd of 15 nM. PGE₂ > PGF₂α > PGD₂ competed for [³H]PGE₂ binding sites as did the EP₃ receptor agonists M&B 28767 = sulprostone > misoprostol but not the EP₁ receptor antagonist SC 19220. In stably transfected CHO cells M&B 28767 > sulprostone = PGE₂ > misoprostol > PGF₂α inhibited the forskolin-elicited cAMP formation. Thus, the characteristics of the EP₃ϐ receptor of rat hepatocytes closely resemble those of the EP₃ϐ receptor of mouse mastocytoma.