Preventive and therapeutic role of betaine in liver disease: A review on molecular mechanisms

Betaine is a kind of water-soluble quaternary amine-type alkaloid widely existing in food, such as wheat germ, beet, spinach, shrimp and wolfberry. As an important methyl donor and osmotic pressure regulator in human body, betaine plays an important role in a variety of physiological activities. In recent years, a large number of literatures have shown that betaine has good preventive and therapeutic effects on many liver diseases, including chemical or drug-induced liver injury, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Therefore, by searching the databases of Web of Science, PubMed, SciFinder and CNKI, this paper has summarized the molecular mechanisms of betaine in improving liver diseases. The results show that the improvement of liver diseases by betaine is closely related to a variety of molecular mechanisms, including inhibition of inflammatory response, improvement of insulin resistance, reduction of endoplasmic reticulum stress, alleviation of liver oxidative stress, increase of autophagy, remodeling of intestinal flora and regulation of epigenetic modification. More importantly, nuclear transcription factor kappa (NF-kappa B), AMPactivated protein kinase (AMPK), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha/gamma (PPAR-alpha/gamma), liver X receptor alpha (LXR alpha), protein kinase B (Akt), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-3 (Caspase-3) signaling pathways are considered as important molecular targets for betaine to improve liver diseases. These important findings will provide a direction and basis for further exploring the pathogenesis of various liver diseases and tapping the potential of betaine in the clinical treatment.

Automated summary

Betaine, a water-soluble quaternary amine-type alkaloid found in various foods, has shown to have preventive and therapeutic effects on liver diseases through multiple molecular mechanisms such as inhibiting inflammatory response, improving insulin resistance, reducing endoplasmic reticulum stress, alleviating liver oxidative stress, increasing autophagy, remodeling intestinal flora, and regulating epigenetic modification. Important molecular targets for the improvement of liver diseases by betaine include NF-kappa B, AMPK, PPAR-alpha/gamma, LXR alpha, Akt, TLR4, and Caspase-3 signaling pathways. These findings provide a basis for further research into the pathogenesis of liver diseases and the potential of betaine in clinical treatment.