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ISSN 2097-3497 (Online)
CN 22-1108/R
Volume 40 Issue 5
May  2024
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Article Contents

Effect of NOD‑like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 knockdown on a mouse model of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis induced by high-fat high-carbohydrate diet

DOI: 10.12449/JCH240514
Research funding:

National Natural Science Foundation of China (82174040);

The Excellent Doctoral Projects in Key Fields of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2-089);

District level Medical and Health Key Project of Shanghai Baoshan District Science (21-E-63)

More Information
  • Corresponding author: FENG Qin, fengqin@shutcm.edu.cn (ORCID:0000-0002-4641-1636)
  • Received Date: 2023-08-15
  • Accepted Date: 2023-08-31
  • Published Date: 2024-05-25
  •   Objective  To investigate the effect of NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) knockdown on a mouse model of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) induced by high-fat high-carbohydrate (HFHC) diet.  Methods  A total of 44 mice were randomly divided into normal diet group (CON group) with 20 mice and HFHC group with 24 mice. At the end of week 14 of modeling, 4 mice were randomly selected from the HFHC group for the pre-experiment of adeno-associated virus (AAV) by tail vein injection, and NLRP3 knockdown was verified after 4 weeks. After NLRP3 knockdown was verified at the end of week 18, the remaining 40 mice were given a single tail vein injection of AAV, and then they were divided into CON+NLRP3 knockdown negative control group (CON+NLRP3-NC group), CON+NLRP3 knockdown group (CON+NLRP3-KD group), HFHC+NLRP3-NC group, and HFHC+NLRP3-KD group, with 10 mice in each group. At the end of week 24, the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome was observed; related indicators were measured, including body weight, liver weight, liver index, and glucose metabolism (fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, and Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance [HOMA-IR] index); the indicators of liver lipid content (liver triglyceride [TG] and oil red O staining), liver inflammation (serum alanine aminotransferase [ALT] activity, HE staining, and inflammation-related genes), and liver fibrosis (Sirius Red staining and fibrosis-related genes) were measured. A one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of continuous data between multiple groups, and the least significant difference t-test was used for further comparison between two groups.  Results  Compared with the CON+NLRP3-NC group based on the results of Western Blot, the HFHC+NLRP3-NC group had significant increases in the protein expression levels of NLRP3, pro-Caspase1, Caspase1, ASC, and IL-1β, while the HFHC+NLRP3-KD group had significant reductions in these levels (all P<0.05). The HFHC+NLRP3-NC group showed varying degrees of increase in body weight, liver weight, liver index, and glucose metabolism indicators, while the HFHC+NLRP3-KD group showed significant improvements in these indicators (all P<0.05). As for hepatic fat deposition, compared with the CON+NLRP3-NC group, the HFHC+NLRP3-NC group had a significant increase in liver TG, with a large number of red lipid droplets shown by oil red O staining, and the HFHC+NLRP3-KD group had significant reductions in liver TG and the number of lipid droplets in the liver (all P<0.01). In terms of liver inflammation, compared with the CON+NLRP3-NC group, the HFHC+NLRP3-NC group had significant increases in serum ALT, NAFLD activity score, and inflammation-related genes, while the HFHC+NLRP3-KD group had significant reductions in these indicators (all P<0.01). As for liver fibrosis, compared with the CON+NLRP3-NC group, the HFHC+NLRP3-NC group had significant increases in collagen fiber area and fibrosis-related genes, and the HFHC+NLRP3-KD group had significant reductions in fibrosis-related genes (all P<0.05) and a tendency of reduction in collagen fiber area (P>0.05).  Conclusion  NLRP3 knockdown can significantly improve hepatic fat deposition and inflammation in a mouse model of HFHC-induced NASH.

     

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