Lopez-Alcantara Nuria, Oelkrug Rebecca, Sentis Sarah Christine, Kirchner Henriette, Mittag Jens
Institut für Endokrinologie und Diabetes, AG Molekulare Endokrinologie, Universität zu Lübeck / Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Center for Brain Behavior and Metabolism CBBM, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
Institut für Humangenetik, AG Epigenetik und Metabolismus, Universität zu Lübeck / Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Center for Brain Behavior and Metabolism CBBM, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
iScience. 2023 Sep 28;26(10):108064. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108064. eCollection 2023 Oct 20.
Agonists for thyroid hormone receptor β (TRβ) show promise in preclinical studies and clinical trials to improve non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. A recent study on human livers, however, revealed reduced TRβ expression in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), indicating a developing thyroid hormone resistance, which could constitute a major obstacle for those agonists. Using a rapid NASH paradigm combining choline-deficient high-fat diet and thermoneutrality, we confirm that TRβ declines during disease progression in mice similar to humans. Contrary to expectations, mice lacking TRβ showed less liver fibrosis, and NASH marker genes were not elevated. Conversely, increasing TRβ expression in wild-type NASH mice using liver-targeted gene therapy did not improve histology, gene expression, or metabolic parameters, indicating that TRβ receptor levels are of minor relevance for NASH development and progression in our model, and suggest that liver-rather than isoform-specificity might be more relevant for NASH treatment with thyroid hormone receptor agonists.
甲状腺激素受体β(TRβ)激动剂在改善非酒精性脂肪性肝病的临床前研究和临床试验中显示出前景。然而,最近一项针对人类肝脏的研究表明,非酒精性脂肪性肝炎(NASH)患者肝脏中TRβ表达降低,这表明甲状腺激素抵抗正在形成,这可能成为这些激动剂的主要障碍。我们采用胆碱缺乏高脂饮食和热中性相结合的快速NASH模型,证实与人类相似,小鼠在疾病进展过程中TRβ水平下降。与预期相反,缺乏TRβ的小鼠肝纤维化程度较轻,NASH标志物基因也未升高。相反,在野生型NASH小鼠中使用肝脏靶向基因疗法增加TRβ表达并不能改善组织学、基因表达或代谢参数,这表明在我们的模型中,TRβ受体水平与NASH的发生和进展关系不大,这也提示肝脏而非异构体特异性可能与甲状腺激素受体激动剂治疗NASH更为相关。