Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Department of Nephrology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Int Immunopharmacol. 2018 Oct;63:183-190. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2018.08.005. Epub 2018 Aug 8.
Fibrosis is the common results from an excessive wound-healing response to chronic liver injury. Otreotide (OCT), an analogue of somatostatin, was reported to have an anti-hepatic fibrosis effect. However, its anti-fibrosis mechanisms have not been well characterized to date. The present study aimed to investigate the protective effects of OCT on carbon tetrachloride (CCl)-induced rat liver fibrosis and activation and proliferation of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)-treated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and explore its anti-hepatofibrotic mechanisms. Our results indicated that treatment with OCT markedly down-regulated the protein and mRNA expression of liver fibrosis markers including α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen I in CCl-induced rat model of liver fibrosis, accompanied by decreasing aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), total bilirubin (TBIL) activities and increasing the serum level of albumin (ALB). In addition, in vitro results revealed that OCT inhibited the activation and proliferation of TGF-β1-treated LX-2 cells in a concentration-dependent manner and decreased in parallel the expression of Wnt1, β-catenin, c-Myc and cyclin D1, indicating that OCT might attenuate liver fibrosis, at least in part, by inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Overall, these results provide a novel anti-fibrotic mechanism of OCT, which might be associated with its ability to repress Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
纤维化是慢性肝损伤过度伤口愈合反应的常见结果。奥曲肽(OCT),一种生长抑素类似物,据报道具有抗肝纤维化作用。然而,其抗纤维化机制尚未得到很好的描述。本研究旨在探讨 OCT 对四氯化碳(CCl)诱导的大鼠肝纤维化和转化生长因子-β1(TGF-β1)处理的肝星状细胞(HSCs)激活和增殖的保护作用,并探讨其抗肝纤维化机制。我们的结果表明,OCT 治疗显著下调了 CCl 诱导的大鼠肝纤维化模型中肝纤维化标志物包括α-平滑肌肌动蛋白(α-SMA)和胶原 I 的蛋白和 mRNA 表达,同时降低天冬氨酸转氨酶(AST)、丙氨酸转氨酶(ALT)、总胆红素(TBIL)活性,增加血清白蛋白(ALB)水平。此外,体外结果表明,OCT 以浓度依赖性方式抑制 TGF-β1 处理的 LX-2 细胞的激活和增殖,并平行降低 Wnt1、β-连环蛋白、c-Myc 和细胞周期蛋白 D1 的表达,表明 OCT 可能通过抑制 Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号通路来减轻肝纤维化,至少部分是这样。总之,这些结果提供了 OCT 的一种新的抗纤维化机制,这可能与其抑制 Wnt/β-连环蛋白信号通路的能力有关。