- can be regulated by via the NF-κB pathway in hypoxia-induced liver fibrosis.

BACKGROUND

The identification of the important elements that control hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation will expand our understanding of the mechanism of liver fibrosis induced by hypoxia and affect the outcome of clinical treatment. A previous research demonstrated that N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 2 () is a potential regulator of fibrosis and a downstream target gene of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (). In this research, we studied the expression and function of NDRG2 in liver fibrosis induced by hypoxia.

METHODS

LX-2 cells/NF-κB-silenced LX-2 cells were exposed to hypoxic conditions (1% O) to activate HSCs . The protein and mRNA expression levels of , and transforming growth factor beta 1 () were evaluated by western blotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively. Functional studies were performed using adenovirus-mediated gene upregulation.

RESULTS

The mRNA and protein levels were reduced under hypoxic conditions in LX-2 cells and overexpression of resulted in a decrease in the expression of and . Interestingly, no relationship was observed between and when the NF-κB pathway was blocked, which indicates that can regulate the expression of in LX-2 cells via the NF-κB pathway under hypoxic conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

may regulate the expression of via the NF-κB pathway and may be a novel therapeutic target for liver fibrosis induced by hypoxia.