Kim Ju Youn, He Feng, Karin Michael
Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction, Departments of Pharmacology and Pathology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, San Diego, CA 92093, USA.
Academy of Integrative Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1200 Cailun Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Mar 4;13(5):1095. doi: 10.3390/cancers13051095.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer provides the prototypical example of an obesity-related cancer. The obesity epidemic gave rise to an enormous increase in the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition that affects one third of American adults. In about 20% of these individuals, simple liver steatosis (hepatosteatosis) progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) characterized by chronic liver injury, inflammation, and fibrosis. In addition to liver failure, NASH greatly increases the risk of HCC. Here we discuss the metabolic processes that control the progression from NAFLD to NASH and from NASH to HCC, with a special emphasis on the role of free-non-esterified cholesterol in the process.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是原发性肝癌最常见的类型，是肥胖相关癌症的典型例子。肥胖流行导致非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）的发病率大幅上升，这种疾病影响着三分之一的美国成年人。在这些个体中，约20%的单纯性肝脂肪变性（肝脂肪变性）会发展为以慢性肝损伤、炎症和纤维化为特征的非酒精性脂肪性肝炎（NASH）。除了肝衰竭，NASH还大大增加了患HCC的风险。在这里，我们讨论了控制从NAFLD到NASH以及从NASH到HCC进展的代谢过程，特别强调游离非酯化胆固醇在这一过程中的作用。
