Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Xiaoxue Long, Dan Liu, Qiongmei Gao, Jiacheng Ni, Lingling Qian, Yueqiong Ni, Qichen Fang, Weiping Jia, Huating Li
Summary: The supplementation of B. adolescentis can alleviate NAFLD by increasing FGF21 sensitivity. The study demonstrated that B. adolescentis reversed CDHFD-induced liver steatosis and steatohepatitis by maintaining gut barrier integrity, reducing gut microbiota-derived LPS, and inhibiting hepatic TLR4/NF-κB pathway expression.
FRONTIERS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Mohammad Zarei, David Aguilar-Recarte, Xavier Palomer, Manuel Vazquez-Carrera
Summary: NAFLD is a chronic liver disease characterized by lipid deposits in hepatocytes, with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) beta/delta playing a crucial role in controlling liver carbohydrate and lipid metabolism to potentially hinder NAFLD progression. Activation of hepatic PPAR beta/delta through synthetic or natural ligands shows promise as a therapeutic option for managing NAFLD.
METABOLISM-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL
(2021)
Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Martin Franck, Katharina John, Sherin Al Aoua, Monika Rau, Andreas Geier, Joern M. Schattenberg, Heiner Wedemeyer, Klaus Schulze-Osthoff, Heike Bantel
Summary: Serum levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) can differentiate between non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) patients, and predict the risk of significant fibrosis in NAFLD patients.
LIVER INTERNATIONAL
(2023)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Tingyu Fang, Hua Wang, Xiaoyue Pan, Peter J. Little, Suowen Xu, Jianping Weng
Summary: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing every year, but there are currently no approved drugs for its treatment. Mouse models are commonly used to study NAFLD and can simulate different stages of the disease, playing an important role in research and drug discovery.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2022)
Review
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Alexandra S. Aaldijk, Cristy R. C. Verzijl, Johan W. Jonker, Dicky Struik
Summary: Beta klotho (KLB) is a crucial component in fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signaling, serving as an essential coreceptor for the hormones fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) and fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). It has emerged as a potential drug target for treating metabolic diseases, but clinical trials have raised questions about human KLB biology and the variable responses in patients. Understanding human KLB biology could improve the efficacy and safety of KLB-targeting drugs.
FRONTIERS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Hye Young Kim, Young Hyun Yoo
Summary: Recent studies have shown that exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) leads to toxicant-associated steatohepatitis, but the underlying mechanism is not yet understood. In this study, mice were exposed to PCB through intraperitoneal injection and exhibited hepatic injury, steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis. It was also observed that PCB exposure led to hepatic iron overload. Furthermore, the expression of hepatic lipocalin-2 (LCN2) was significantly increased in the PCB-induced models of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Fasiha Kanwal, Jay H. Shubrook, Zobair Younossi, Yamini Natarajan, Elisabetta Bugianesi, Mary E. Rinella, Stephen A. Harrison, Christos Mantzoros, Kim Pfotenhauer, Samuel Klein, Robert H. Eckel, Davida Kruger, Hashem El-Serag, Kenneth Cusi
Summary: There are significant management gaps between clinical guidelines and practice in patients with NAFLD and NASH, and there is no single global guiding strategy for their management. An international conference convened experts in gastroenterology, hepatology, endocrinology, and primary care providers to discuss promising approaches for clinical practice and prepare a comprehensive, unified strategy for the care of NAFLD/NASH patients. Participants also identified specific high-yield targets for clinical research and called for a unified, international public health response to NAFLD and NASH.
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Kimia Falamarzi, Mahdi Malekpour, Mobin Fallah Tafti, Negar Azarpira, Mehrdad Behboodi, Mohammad Zarei
Summary: Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a hormone-like growth factor that regulates lipid and glucose metabolism. It plays an important role in improving lipid profile and increasing insulin sensitivity. FGF21 is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
(2022)
Letter
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Amandeep Singh, Rajat Garg, Rocio Lopez, Naim Alkhouri
Summary: This study aims to develop a simple noninvasive fibrosis score to detect advanced fibrosis in patients with diabetes and compare its performance with other fibrosis scores.
CLINICAL GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Fasiha Kanwal, Jay H. Shubrook, Zobair Younossi, Yamini Natarajan, Elisabetta Bugianesi, Mary E. Rinella, Stephen A. Harrison, Christos Mantzoros, Kim Pfotenhauer, Samuel Klein, Robert H. Eckel, Davida Kruger, Hashem El-Serag, Kenneth Cusi
Summary: NAFLD and NASH are common conditions with significant management gaps, lacking a single global guiding strategy. The American Gastroenterological Association, along with professional associations, convened an international conference to develop a comprehensive, unified strategy for primary care providers and specialists, calling for a unified international public health response to NAFLD and NASH.
METABOLISM-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Kaja Blagotinsek Cokan, Ziga Urlep, Miha Moskon, Miha Mraz, Xiang Yi Kong, Winnie Eskild, Damjana Rozman, Peter Juvan, Tadeja Rezen
Summary: Through mouse models, it was found that various genetic models of liver fibrosis exhibit a common transcriptional program and downregulated lipid pathways, while different metabolic subtypes of liver fibrosis were proposed, aiding in improved stratification of other fibrosis-related pathologies.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nikolaos Perakakis, Pavlina Chrysafi, Michael Feigh, Sanne Skovgard Veidal, Christos S. Mantzoros
Summary: Empagliflozin has shown beneficial metabolic and hepatic effects (mainly anti-inflammatory) in non-diabetic DIO-NASH mice, improving glucose homeostasis and inflammation without affecting body weight, composition, or insulin sensitivity.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Mi-Bo Kim, Yoojin Lee, Minkyung Bae, Hyunju Kang, Siqi Hu, Tho X. Pham, Ji-Young Lee, Young-Ki Park
Summary: This study demonstrated that the consumption of U.S.-grown sugar kelp can prevent obesity-related metabolic abnormalities and NASH in a mouse model. Mice fed with sugar kelp showed lower body weight, increased metabolism, reduced fat accumulation, inflammation, and fibrosis in the liver and adipose tissue compared to the control group.
JOURNAL OF NUTRITIONAL BIOCHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Shyamalagauri Jadhav, Olga Protchenko, Fengmin Li, Ethan Baratz, Minoo Shakoury-Elizeh, Alan Maschek, James Cox, Caroline C. Philpott
Summary: Iron is an essential nutrient that forms cofactors required for cellular protein activity, but can be toxic if not properly managed. PCBP1 is a multifunctional protein that binds iron and nucleic acids, regulating their fate. Deletion of PCBP1 in the liver results in dysregulated iron balance, leading to chronic liver disease with lipid accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Supplementation with coenzyme Q is necessary to restore mitochondrial function in this context of ongoing oxidative damage.
FREE RADICAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Immunology
Jarren R. Oates, Keisuke Sawada, Daniel A. Giles, Pablo C. Alarcon, Michelle S. M. A. Damen, Sara Szabo, Traci E. Stankiewicz, Maria E. Moreno-Fernandez, Senad Divanovic
Summary: Recent evidence suggests that housing temperature-induced alterations in hepatic inflammation correlate with exacerbated hepatic steatosis, development of hepatic fibrosis, and hepatocellular damage in a model of high fat diet-driven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the congruency of these findings across other frequently employed experimental mouse models of NAFLD has not been studied. This study examines the impact of housing temperature on different experimental models of NAFLD in mice.
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Chrissa Petersen, Divya Bharat, Umesh D. Wankhade, Ji-Seok Kim, Brett Ronald Cutler, Christopher Denetso, Samira Gholami, Samantha Nelson, Jessica Bigley, Aspen Johnson, Sree Chintapalli, Brian D. Piccolo, Adhini Kuppuswamy Satheesh Babu, Henry A. Paz, Kartik Shankar, J. David Symons, Pon Velayutham Anandh Babu
Summary: This study investigates the effects of dietary blueberries on vascular complications and gut microbiome in diabetic mice. The results show that blueberry supplementation can alleviate vascular inflammation, improve arterial endothelial function, and support the growth of commensal microbes.
MOLECULAR NUTRITION & FOOD RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Catherine C. Cohen, Wei Perng, Traci A. Bekelman, Brandy M. Ringham, Ann Scherzinger, Kartik Shankar, Dana Dabelea
Summary: This study aimed to examine the association between nutrient intakes in childhood and abdominal and hepatic fat depots in adolescence. It found that fat intake in childhood was associated with abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue, starch intake was associated with hepatic fat, and animal protein intake was associated with visceral adipose tissue in boys.
Article
Pediatrics
Catherine C. Cohen, Ellen C. Francis, Wei Perng, Katherine A. Sauder, Ann Scherzinger, Shikha S. Sundaram, Kartik Shankar, Dana Dabelea
Summary: This study found an association between maternal lipid concentrations, especially in early pregnancy, and higher offspring hepatic fat. Adjusting for potential confounders or mediators did not affect the associations.
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Begum Aydogan Mathyk, Brian D. Piccolo, Fernanda Alvarado, Kartik Shankar, Perrie O'Tierney-Ginn
Summary: Maternal obesity is associated with neonatal adiposity and cord blood metabolites, but these associations differ between offspring of obese and normal-weight women, with different fatty acid profiles observed in the cord blood of obese women's offspring.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-ENDOCRINOLOGY AND METABOLISM
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Cassandra B. Higgins, Allyson L. Mayer, Yiming Zhang, Michael Franczyk, Samuel Ballentine, Jun Yoshino, Brian J. DeBosch
Summary: This study demonstrates the upregulation of hepatocyte NAMPT during fasting, which plays a role in regulating FGF21 activation and glucose homeostasis. Moreover, hepatic NAMPT can improve dyslipidemia and induce adipose browning in obese mice. Modulating hepatocyte NAD(+) may be a potential mechanism to attenuate fasting-responsive disease.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Nutrition & Dietetics
Martin J. J. Ronis, Horacio Gomez-Acevedo, Kartik Shankar, Leah Hennings, Neha Sharma, Michael L. Blackburn, Isabelle Miousse, Harry Dawson, Celine Chen, Kelly E. Mercer, Thomas M. Badger
Summary: This study found that soy infant formula does not have estrogenic effects or significantly alter male reproductive development in newborn male piglets, compared to sow milk and milk formula.
Article
Pediatrics
Stephanie P. Gilley, Meghan L. Ruebel, Clark Sims, Ying Zhong, Donald Turner, Renny S. Lan, Lindsay M. Pack, Brian D. Piccolo, Sree Chintapalli, Ann Abraham, Lars Bode, Aline Andres, Kartik Shankar
Summary: Maternal obesity is associated with changes in infant fecal microbiome, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), and human milk oligosaccharides (HMO). Offspring of women with obesity have lower abundance of SCFA-producing bacteria and lower levels of faecal butyric acid. Overall microbial richness may aid in prediction of elevated adiposity in later infancy.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jin-Ran Chen, Perry C. Caviness, Haijun Zhao, Beau Belcher, Umesh D. Wankhade, Kartik Shankar, Michael L. Blackburn, Oxana P. Lazarenko
Summary: Studies have shown that maternal chronic poor-quality diet, especially a high fat diet, is associated with reduced bone density and childhood fractures in offspring. The research findings indicate that maternal high fat diet changes histone methylation and acetylation epigenetic marks, which regulate the expression of genes controlling osteoblastogenesis.
Article
Microbiology
Minghua Tang, Nicholas E. Weaver, Daniel N. Frank, Diana Ir, Charles E. Robertson, Jennifer F. Kemp, Jamie Westcott, Kartik Shankar, Ana L. Garces, Lester Figueroa, Antoinette K. Tshefu, Adrien L. Lokangaka, Shivaprasad S. Goudar, Manjunath Somannavar, Sumera Aziz, Sarah Saleem, Elizabeth M. McClure, K. Michael Hambidge, Audrey E. Hendricks, Nancy F. Krebs
Summary: The objective of this study was to characterize the changes in gut microbiota during pregnancy and to determine the effects of nutritional intervention on gut microbiota in women from sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Central America. The results showed that the composition of gut microbial community changed significantly during pregnancy, with a decrease in alpha-diversity. Nutritional intervention did not have a significant impact on inflammatory biomarkers.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Catherine C. Cohen, Dana Dabelea, Gregory Michelotti, Lu Tang, Kartik Shankar, Michael Goran, Wei Perng
Summary: This study aimed to assess the intermediary metabolic alterations between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and cardiometabolic risk factors in youth. The researchers identified a panel of lipid metabolites that may serve as biomarkers linking sugar-sweetened beverage intake to dyslipidemia risk in youth.
Article
Physiology
Harrison D. Stierwalt, E. Matthew Morris, Adrianna Maurer, Udayan Apte, Kathryn Phillips, Tiangang Li, Grace M. E. Meers, Lauren G. Koch, Steven L. Britton, Greg Graf, R. Scott Rector, Kelly Mercer, Kartik Shankar, John P. Thyfault
Summary: The study found that high aerobic capacity and exercise are associated with upregulation of bile acid synthesis and greater fecal excretion of cholesterol and bile acid, which may contribute to the protection against hepatic steatosis in rodents.
PHYSIOLOGICAL REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Nutrition & Dietetics
Catherine C. Cohen, Kylie K. Harrall, Stephanie P. Gilley, Wei Perng, Katherine A. Sauder, Ann Scherzinger, Kartik Shankar, Shikha S. Sundaram, Deborah H. Glueck, Dana Dabelea
Summary: This study found that children with higher hepatic fat in early childhood had smaller birth weight and faster adiposity accretion in the first 5 years. This suggests that promoting healthy body composition early in life may be critical for preventing pediatric NAFLD.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Henry A. Paz, Anna-Claire Pilkington, Ying Zhong, Sree Chintapalli, James Sikes, Renny S. Lan, Kartik Shankar, Umesh D. Wankhade
Summary: The gut microbiota plays a critical role in energy homeostasis and its dysbiosis is associated with obesity. Maternal high-fat diet and beta-adrenergic stimuli independently alter the gut microbiota, but their combined regulation is not clear. This study investigated the combined effect of these factors on offspring microbiota and found that maternal high-fat diet altered the offspring's response to beta-adrenergic stimuli, as well as microbial composition and function. Additionally, exposure to different temperatures also affected bacterial function.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Cassandra B. Higgins, Joshua A. Adams, Matthew H. Ward, Zev J. Greenberg, Malgorzata Milewska, Jiameng Sun, Yiming Zhang, Luana Chiquetto Paracatu, Qian Dong, Samuel Ballentine, Weikai Li, Ilona Wandzik, Laura G. Schuettpelz, Brian J. DeBosch
Summary: CD53 marks the nutritional and inflammatory status of hepatocytes, and its deletion can attenuate dyslipidemia and hepatic inflammatory activation. It also blocks peripheral adipose accumulation, adipose inflammation, and liver lipid accumulation. CD53 integrates inflammatory and metabolic signals in response to hepatocyte nutritional status and its blockade may be a potential therapeutic strategy for diseases involving overnutrition and inflammation.
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Cell Biology
Yiming Zhang, Cassandra B. Higgins, Brian A. Van Tine, John S. Bomalaski, Brian J. DeBosch
Summary: Arginine catabolism through activation of systemic autophagy can effectively modulate energy metabolism and reverse multiple complications in obese mice. This study provides potential therapeutic utility for arginine catabolism in the treatment of obesity.
CELL REPORTS MEDICINE
(2022)