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Hepatocyte death, as well as the following inflammatory and fibrogenic signaling cascades, is the key trigger of liver fibrosis. Here, we isolated hepatocytes from CCl4-induced fibrotic liver and found that hepatocyte lincRNA-p21 significantly increased during liver fibrosis. The increase of hepatocyte lincRNA-p21 was associated with the loss of miR-30, which can inhibit TGF-β signaling by targeting KLF11. We revealed that lincRNA-p21 modulated miR-30 availability by acting as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA). The physiological significance of this interaction is highlighted by the feedback loop, in which lincRNA-p21 works as a downstream effector of the TGF-β signaling to strengthen TGF-β signaling and mediate its role in promoting liver fibrosis by interacting with miR-30. In vivo results showed that knockdown of hepatocyte lincRNA-p21 greatly reduced CCl4-induced liver fibrosis and inflammation, whereas ectopic expression of miR-30 in hepatocyte exhibited the similar results. Mechanistic studies further revealed that inhibition of miR-30 impaired the effects of lincRNA-p21 on liver fibrosis. Additionally, lincRNA-p21 promoted hepatocyte apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, whereas the proliferation rate of hepatocyte was suppressed by lincRNA-p21. The pleiotropic roles of hepatocyte lincRNA-p21 suggest that it may represent an unknown paradigm in liver fibrosis and serve as a potential target for therapy.

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