Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-2017
Abstract
Objective: Liver fibrosis is associated with significant collagen-I deposition largely produced by activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs); yet, the link between hepatocyte damage and the HSC profibrogenic response remains unclear. Here we show significant induction of osteopontin (OPN) and high-mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) in liver fibrosis. Since OPN was identified as upstream of HMGB1, we hypothesised that OPN could participate in the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis by increasing HMGB1 to upregulate collagen-I expression. Design and results: Patients with long-term hepatitis C virus (HCV) progressing in disease stage displayed enhanced hepatic OPN and HMGB1 immunostaining, which correlated with fibrosis stage, whereas it remained similar in non-progressors. Hepatocyte cytoplasmic OPN and HMGB1 expression was significant while loss of nuclear HMGB1 occurred in patients with HCV-induced fibrosis compared with healthy explants. Well-established liver fibrosis along with marked induction of HMGB1 occurred in CCl4-injected OpnHep transgenic yet it was less in wild type and almost absent in Opn−/− mice. Hmgb1 ablation in hepatocytes (Hmgb1ΔHep) protected mice from CCl4-induced liver fibrosis. Coculture with hepatocytes that secrete OPN plus HMGB1 and challenge with recombinant OPN (rOPN) or HMGB1 (rHMGB1) enhanced collagen-I expression in HSCs, which was blunted by neutralising antibodies (Abs) and by Opn or Hmgb1 ablation. rOPN induced acetylation of HMGB1 in HSCs due to increased NADPH oxidase activity and the associated decrease in histone deacetylases 1/2 leading to upregulation of collagen-I. Last, rHMGB1 signalled via receptor for advanced glycation end-products and activated the PI3K–pAkt1/2/ 3 pathway to upregulate collagen-I.
Recommended Citation
Arriazu E, Ge X, Leung T, et al. Signalling via the osteopontin and high mobility group box-1 axis drives the fibrogenic response to liver injury. Gut 2017;66:1123-1137.
Comments
The copy of record is available from the publisher at https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2015-310752. Copyright © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2017. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work noncommercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.