PDGF-dependent hepatic stellate cell (HSC) recruitment is an essential step in liver fibrosis and the sinusoidal vascular changes that accompany this process. However, the mechanisms that regulate PDGF signaling remain incompletely defined. Here, we found that in two rat models of liver fibrosis, the axonal guidance molecule neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) was upregulated in activated HSCs, which exhibit the highly motile myofibroblast phenotype. Additionally, NRP-1 colocalized with PDGF-receptor β (PDGFRβ) in HSCs both in the injury models and in human and rat HSC cell lines. In human HSCs, siRNA-mediated knockdown of NRP-1 attenuated PDGF-induced chemotaxis, while NRP-1 overexpression increased cell motility and TGF-β–dependent collagen production. Similarly, mouse HSCs genetically modified to lack NRP-1 displayed reduced motility in response to PDGF treatment. Immunoprecipitation and biochemical binding studies revealed that NRP-1 increased PDGF binding affinity for PDGFRβ-expressing cells and promoted downstream signaling. An NRP-1 neutralizing Ab ameliorated recruitment of HSCs, blocked liver fibrosis in a rat model of liver injury, and also attenuated VEGF responses in cultured liver endothelial cells. In addition, NRP-1 overexpression was observed in human specimens of liver cirrhosis caused by both hepatitis C and steatohepatitis. These studies reveal a role for NRP-1 as a modulator of multiple growth factor targets that regulate liver fibrosis and the vascular changes that accompany it and may have broad implications for liver cirrhosis and myofibroblast biology in a variety of other organ systems and disease conditions.
Sheng Cao, Usman Yaqoob, Amitava Das, Uday Shergill, Kumaravelu Jagavelu, Robert C. Huebert, Chittaranjan Routray, Soha Abdelmoneim, Meher Vasdev, Edward Leof, Michael Charlton, Ryan J. Watts, Debabrata Mukhopadhyay, Vijay H. Shah
Hepatic fibrosis occurs during most chronic liver diseases and is driven by inflammatory responses to injured tissue. Because DCs are central to modulating liver immunity, we postulated that altered DC function contributes to immunologic changes in hepatic fibrosis and affects the pathologic inflammatory milieu within the fibrotic liver. Using mouse models, we determined the contribution of DCs to altered hepatic immunity in fibrosis and investigated the role of DCs in modulating the inflammatory environment within the fibrotic liver. We found that DC depletion completely abrogated the elevated levels of many inflammatory mediators that are produced in the fibrotic liver. DCs represented approximately 25% of the fibrotic hepatic leukocytes and showed an elevated CD11b+CD8– fraction, a lower B220+ plasmacytoid fraction, and increased expression of MHC II and CD40. Moreover, after liver injury, DCs gained a marked capacity to induce hepatic stellate cells, NK cells, and T cells to mediate inflammation, proliferation, and production of potent immune responses. The proinflammatory and immunogenic effects of fibrotic DCs were contingent on their production of TNF-α. Therefore, modulating DC function may be an attractive approach to experimental therapeutics in fibro-inflammatory liver disease.
Michael K. Connolly, Andrea S. Bedrosian, Jon Mallen-St. Clair, Aaron P. Mitchell, Junaid Ibrahim, Andrea Stroud, H. Leon Pachter, Dafna Bar-Sagi, Alan B. Frey, George Miller
Massive liver resection and small-for-size liver transplantation pose a therapeutic challenge, due to increased susceptibility of the remnant/graft to ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) and impaired regeneration. We investigated the dual role of complement in IRI versus regeneration in mice. Complement component 3 (C3) deficiency and complement inhibition with complement receptor 2–complement receptor 1–related protein y (CR2-Crry, an inhibitor of C3 activation) provided protection from hepatic IRI, and while C3 deficiency also impaired liver regeneration following partial hepatectomy (PHx), the effect of CR2-Crry in this context was dose dependent. In a combined model of IRI and PHx, either C3 deficiency or high-dose CR2-Crry resulted in steatosis, severe hepatic injury, and high mortality, whereas low-dose CR2-Crry was protective and actually increased hepatic proliferative responses relative to control mice. Reconstitution experiments revealed an important role for the C3a degradation product acylation-stimulating protein (ASP) in the balance between inflammation/injury versus regeneration. Furthermore, liver regeneration was dependent on the putative ASP receptor, C5L2. Several potential mechanisms of hepatoprotection and recovery were identified in mice treated with low-dose CR2-Crry, including enhanced IL-6 expression and STAT3 activation, reduced hepatic ATP depletion, and attenuated oxidative stress. These data indicate that a threshold of complement activation, involving ASP and C5L2, promotes liver regeneration and suggest a balance between complement-dependent injury and regeneration.
Songqing He, Carl Atkinson, Fei Qiao, Katherine Cianflone, Xiaoping Chen, Stephen Tomlinson
Biliary atresia is a neonatal obstructive cholangiopathy that progresses to end-stage liver disease. Although the etiology is unknown, a neonatal adaptive immune signature has been mechanistically linked to obstruction of the extrahepatic bile ducts. Here, we investigated the role of the innate immune response in the pathogenesis of biliary atresia. Analysis of livers of infants at diagnosis revealed that NK cells populate the vicinity of intrahepatic bile ducts and overexpress several genes involved in cytotoxicity. Using a model of rotavirus-induced biliary atresia in newborn mice, we found that activated NK cells also populated murine livers and were the most abundant cells in extrahepatic bile ducts at the time of obstruction. Rotavirus-primed hepatic NK cells lysed cholangiocytes in a contact- and Nkg2d-dependent fashion. Depletion of NK cells and blockade of Nkg2d each prevented injury of the duct epithelium after rotavirus infection, maintained continuity of duct lumen between the liver and duodenum, and enabled bile flow, despite the presence of virus in the tissue and the overexpression of proinflammatory cytokines. These findings identify NK cells as key initiators of cholangiocyte injury via Nkg2d and demonstrate that injury to the duct epithelium drives the phenotype of experimental biliary atresia.
Pranavkumar Shivakumar, Gregg E. Sabla, Peter Whitington, Claire A. Chougnet, Jorge A. Bezerra
Hepatic fibrosis develops as a response to chronic liver injury and almost exclusively occurs in a proinflammatory environment. However, the role of inflammatory mediators in fibrogenic responses of the liver is only poorly understood. We therefore investigated the role of CC chemokines and their receptors in hepatic fibrogenesis. The CC chemokines MIP-1α, MIP-1β, and RANTES and their receptors CCR1 and CCR5 were strongly upregulated in 2 experimental mouse models of fibrogenesis. Neutralization of CC chemokines by the broad-spectrum CC chemokine inhibitor 35k efficiently reduced hepatic fibrosis, and CCR1- and CCR5-deficient mice displayed substantially reduced hepatic fibrosis and macrophage infiltration. Analysis of fibrogenesis in CCR1- and CCR5-chimeric mice revealed that CCR1 mediates its profibrogenic effects in BM-derived cells, whereas CCR5 mediates its profibrogenic effects in resident liver cells. CCR5 promoted hepatic stellate cell (HSC) migration through a redox-sensitive, PI3K-dependent pathway. Both CCR5-deficient HSCs and CCR1- and CCR5-deficient Kupffer cells displayed strong suppression of CC chemokine–induced migration. Finally, we detected marked upregulation of RANTES, CCR1, and CCR5 in patients with hepatic cirrhosis, confirming activation of the CC chemokine system in human fibrogenesis. Our data therefore support a role for the CC chemokine system in hepatic fibrogenesis and suggest distinct roles for CCR1 and CCR5 in Kupffer cells and HSCs.
Ekihiro Seki, Samuele De Minicis, Geum-Youn Gwak, Johannes Kluwe, Sayaka Inokuchi, Christina A. Bursill, Josep M. Llovet, David A. Brenner, Robert F. Schwabe
The formation of polyploid cells is part of the developmental program of several tissues. During postnatal development, binucleated tetraploid cells arise in the liver, caused by failure in cytokinesis. In this report, we have shown that the initiation of cytokinesis failure events and the subsequent appearance of binucleated tetraploid cells are strictly controlled by the suckling-to-weaning transition in rodents. We found that daily light/dark rhythms and carbohydrate intake did not affect liver tetraploidy. In contrast, impairment of insulin signaling drastically reduced the formation of binucleated tetraploid cells, whereas repeated insulin injections promoted the generation of these liver cells. Furthermore, inhibition of Akt activity decreased the number of cytokinesis failure events, possibly through the mammalian target of rapamycin signaling complex 2 (mTORC2), which indicates that the PI3K/Akt pathway lies downstream of the insulin signal to regulate the tetraploidization process. To our knowledge, these results are the first demonstration in a physiological context that insulin signaling through Akt controls a specific cell division program and leads to the physiologic generation of binucleated tetraploid liver cells.
Séverine Celton-Morizur, Grégory Merlen, Dominique Couton, Germain Margall-Ducos, Chantal Desdouets
The forkhead box proteins A1 and A2 (Foxa1 and Foxa2) are transcription factors with critical roles in establishing the developmental competence of the foregut endoderm and in initiating liver specification. Using conditional gene ablation during a later phase of liver development, we show here that deletion of both Foxa1 and Foxa2 (Foxa1/2) in the embryonic liver caused hyperplasia of the biliary tree. Abnormal bile duct formation in Foxa1/2-deficient liver was due, at least in part, to activation of IL-6 expression, a proliferative signal for cholangiocytes. The glucocorticoid receptor is a negative regulator of IL-6 transcription; in the absence of Foxa1/2, the glucocorticoid receptor failed to bind to the IL-6 promoter, causing enhanced IL-6 expression. Thus, after liver specification, Foxa1/2 are required for normal bile duct development through prevention of excess cholangiocyte proliferation. Our data suggest that Foxa1/2 function as terminators of bile duct expansion in the adult liver through inhibition of IL-6 expression.
Zhaoyu Li, Peter White, Geetu Tuteja, Nir Rubins, Sara Sackett, Klaus H. Kaestner
Environmental arsenic exposure, through drinking contaminated water, is a significant risk factor for developing vascular diseases and is associated with liver portal hypertension, vascular shunting, and portal fibrosis through unknown mechanisms. We found that the addition of low doses of arsenite to the drinking water of mice resulted in marked pathologic remodeling in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (SECs), including SEC defenestration, capillarization, increased junctional PECAM-1 expression, protein nitration, and decreased liver clearance of modified albumin. Furthermore, the pathologic changes observed after in vivo exposure were recapitulated in isolated mouse SECs exposed to arsenic in culture. To investigate the role of NADPH oxidase–generated ROS in this remodeling, we examined the effect of arsenite in the drinking water of mice deficient for the p47 subunit of the NADPH oxidase and found that knockout mice were protected from arsenite-induced capillarization and protein nitration. Furthermore, ex vivo arsenic exposure increased SEC superoxide generation, and this effect was inhibited by addition of a Nox2 inhibitor and quenched by the cell-permeant superoxide scavenger. In addition, inhibiting either oxidant generation or Rac1-GTPase blocked ex vivo arsenic-stimulated SEC differentiation and dysfunction. Our data indicate that a Nox2-based oxidase is required for SEC capillarization and that it may play a central role in vessel remodeling following environmentally relevant arsenic exposures.
Adam C. Straub, Katherine A. Clark, Mark A. Ross, Ashwin G. Chandra, Song Li, Xiang Gao, Patrick J. Pagano, Donna B. Stolz, Aaron Barchowsky
Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn error of metabolism caused by mutations in phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH). Over 500 disease-causing mutations have been identified in humans, most of which result in PAH protein misfolding and increased turnover in vivo. The use of pharmacological chaperones to stabilize or promote correct folding of mutant proteins represents a promising new direction in the treatment of misfolding diseases. We performed a high-throughput ligand screen of over 1,000 pharmacological agents and identified 4 compounds (I–IV) that enhanced the thermal stability of PAH and did not show substantial inhibition of PAH activity. In further studies, compounds III (3-amino-2-benzyl-7-nitro-4-(2-quinolyl)-1,2-dihydroisoquinolin-1-one) and IV (5,6-dimethyl-3-(4-methyl-2-pyridinyl)-2-thioxo-2,3-dihydrothieno[2,3- d]pyrimidin-4(1H)-one) stabilized the functional tetrameric conformation of recombinant WT-PAH and PKU mutants. These compounds also significantly increased activity and steady-state PAH protein levels in cells transiently transfected with either WT-PAH or PKU mutants. Furthermore, PAH activity in mouse liver increased after a 12-day oral administration of low doses of compounds III and IV. Thus, we have identified 2 small molecules that may represent promising alternatives in the treatment of PKU.
Angel L. Pey, Ming Ying, Nunilo Cremades, Adrian Velazquez-Campoy, Tanja Scherer, Beat Thöny, Javier Sancho, Aurora Martinez
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a cholestatic disease associated with autoimmune phenomena and alterations in both biliary bicarbonate excretion and expression of the bicarbonate carrier AE2. The bile acid ursodeoxycholic acid (UCDA) is currently used in treatment of cholestatic liver diseases and is the treatment of choice in PBC; however, a subset of PBC patients respond poorly to UDCA monotherapy. In these patients, a combination of UDCA and glucocorticoid therapy appears to be beneficial. To address the mechanism of this benefit, we analyzed the effects of UDCA and dexamethasone on AE2 gene expression in human liver cells from hepatocyte and cholangiocyte lineages. The combination of UDCA and dexamethasone, but not UDCA or dexamethasone alone, increased the expression of liver-enriched alternative mRNA isoforms AE2b1 and AE2b2 and enhanced AE2 activity. Similar effects were obtained after replacing UDCA with UDCA conjugates. In in vitro and in vivo reporter assays, we found that a UDCA/dexamethasone combination upregulated human AE2 alternate overlapping promoter sequences from which AE2b1 and AE2b2 are expressed. In chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, we demonstrated that combination UCDA/dexamethasone treatment induced p300-related interactions between HNF1 and glucocorticoid receptor on the AE2 alternate promoter. Our data provide a potential molecular explanation for the beneficial effects of the combination of UDCA and glucocorticoids in PBC patients with inadequate response to UDCA monotherapy.
Fabián Arenas, Isabel Hervias, Miriam Úriz, Ruth Joplin, Jesús Prieto, Juan F. Medina