Division of Cosmetic Science and Technology, Daegu Haany University, Hanuidae-ro 1, Gyeongsan-si 38610, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea.
Department of Biochemistry and Institute of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea.
Cells. 2021 May 6;10(5):1120. doi: 10.3390/cells10051120.
Alcohol is one of the main causes of liver diseases such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and chronic hepatitis with liver fibrosis or cirrhosis. To reproduce the conditions of alcohol-induced liver diseases and to identify the disease-causing mechanisms at the cellular level, several methods have been used to expose the cells to ethanol. As ethanol evaporates easily, it is difficult to mimic chronic alcohol exposure conditions at the cellular level. In this study, we developed a glass capillary system containing ethanol, which could steadily release ethanol from the polyethylene tubing and hydrogel portion at both sides of the capillary. The ethanol-containing capillary could release ethanol in the cell culture medium for up to 144 h, and the concentration of ethanol in the cell culture medium could be adjusted by controlling the number of capillaries. A long-term exposure to ethanol by the capillary system led to an increased toxicity of cells and altered the cellular physiologies, such as increasing the lipid accumulation and hepatic transaminase release in cells, as compared to the traditional direct ethanol addition method. Ethanol capillaries showed different gene expression patterns of lipid accumulation- or chronic alcoholism-related genes. Our results suggest that our ethanol-containing capillary system can be used as a valuable tool for studying the mechanism of chronic alcohol-mediated hepatic diseases at the cellular level.
酒精是脂肪肝、酒精性肝炎和伴有肝纤维化或肝硬化的慢性肝炎等肝脏疾病的主要原因之一。为了重现酒精性肝病的条件,并在细胞水平上确定致病机制,已经使用了几种方法将细胞暴露于乙醇中。由于乙醇容易蒸发,因此很难在细胞水平上模拟慢性酒精暴露条件。在这项研究中,我们开发了一种含有乙醇的玻璃毛细管系统,该系统可以从毛细管两侧的聚乙烯管和水凝胶部分稳定地释放乙醇。含有乙醇的毛细管可以在细胞培养基中释放乙醇长达 144 小时,并且可以通过控制毛细管的数量来调节细胞培养基中乙醇的浓度。与传统的直接添加乙醇方法相比,毛细管系统的长期乙醇暴露会导致细胞毒性增加,并改变细胞的生理状态,例如增加细胞中的脂质积累和肝转氨酶释放。乙醇毛细管显示出与脂质积累或慢性酒精中毒相关基因的不同基因表达模式。我们的结果表明,我们的含乙醇毛细管系统可作为在细胞水平上研究慢性酒精介导的肝脏疾病机制的有价值的工具。