Yamada Kazutoshi, Mizukoshi Eishiro, Seike Takuya, Horii Rika, Kitahara Masaaki, Sunagozaka Hajime, Arai Kuniaki, Yamashita Tatsuya, Honda Masao, Kaneko Shuichi
Department of Gastroenterology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.
PLoS One. 2018 Jan 17;13(1):e0191026. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191026. eCollection 2018.
BACKGROUND & AIMS: The modest consumption of alcohol has been reported to decrease the incidence of fatty liver or prevalence of steatohepatitis. In this study, we investigated the effect of light alcohol consumption on liver function and gene expression in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
The study group was formed of 178 patients diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, subclassified into two groups for analysis based on the daily alcohol consumption: non-alcohol group and light alcohol consumer group (≤20 g of ethanol/day). Clinical characteristics, liver histological features, gene expression, comprehensively analyzed using microarrays (BRB-Array tools), and molecular network were evaluated and compared between the two groups.
No significant differences in steatosis or inflammation score were noted among the groups. However, the ballooning and fibrosis scores were significantly lower in the light alcohol consumer group than in the non-alcohol group. Gene expression analysis revealed a marked inhibition of the pathways involved in the immune response in the light alcohol group compared to that in the non-alcohol group.
Light alcohol consumption might suppress activity of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis by reducing gene expression levels involved in the immune response. This inhibition in gene expression was associated with a lowering of liver fibrosis and hepatocellular injury.
据报道，适度饮酒可降低脂肪肝的发病率或脂肪性肝炎的患病率。在本研究中，我们调查了轻度饮酒对非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）患者肝功能和基因表达的影响。
研究组由178例诊断为非酒精性脂肪性肝病的患者组成，根据每日饮酒量分为两组进行分析：非饮酒组和轻度饮酒组（≤20克乙醇/天）。对两组患者的临床特征、肝脏组织学特征、基因表达（使用微阵列综合分析（BRB-Array工具））和分子网络进行评估和比较。
各组之间在脂肪变性或炎症评分方面未观察到显著差异。然而，轻度饮酒组的气球样变和纤维化评分显著低于非饮酒组。基因表达分析显示，与非饮酒组相比，轻度饮酒组中参与免疫反应的通路受到明显抑制。
轻度饮酒可能通过降低参与免疫反应的基因表达水平来抑制非酒精性脂肪性肝炎的活动。这种基因表达的抑制与肝纤维化和肝细胞损伤的减轻有关。
