Acute injury in the setting of liver fibrosis is an interesting and still unsettled issue. Most recently, several prominent studies have indicated the favourable effects of liver fibrosis against acute insults. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms governing this hepatoprotection remain obscure. In the present study, we hypothesized that macrophages and their M1/M2 activation critically involve in the hepatoprotection conferred by liver fibrosis. Our findings demonstrated that liver fibrosis manifested a beneficial role for host survival and apoptosis resistance. Hepatoprotection in the fibrotic liver was tightly related to innate immune tolerance. Macrophages undertook crucial but divergent roles in homeostasis and fibrosis: depleting macrophages in control mice protected from acute insult; conversely, depleting macrophages in fibrotic liver weakened the hepatoprotection and gave rise to exacerbated liver injury upon insult. The contradictory effects of macrophages can be ascribed, to a great extent, to the heterogeneity in macrophage activation. Macrophages in fibrotic mice exhibited M2-preponderant activation, which was not the case in acutely injured liver. Adoptive transfer of M2-like macrophages conferred control mice conspicuous protection against insult. In vitro, M2-polarized macrophages protected hepatocytes against apoptosis. Together, M2-like macrophages in fibrotic liver exert the protective effects against lethal insults through conferring apoptosis resistance to hepatocytes.
Background & AimsApoptosis mediated by p53 plays a pathological role in the progression of hepatosteatosis. It is noteworthy that p53 can promote the expression of damage-regulated autophagy modulator (DRAM), an inducer of autophagy-mediated apoptosis. However, the relationship between p53-mediated apoptosis and autophagy in hepatosteatosis remains elusive. This study aimed to examine how p53 orchestrates autophagy and apoptosis to affect hepatosteatosis.MethodsHepG2 cells were treated with oleic acid (OA) for 24 h to induce hepatosteatosis. Mice were fed a high-fat diet for 20 or 40 weeks to induce hepatosteatosis.ResultsOA induced a dose-dependent increase in steatosis severity and apoptosis. OA also induced autophagy, which was a critical inducer of apoptosis in mild steatosis induced by 400 μM OA, but not in the more severe steatosis induced by 800 and 1200 μM OA. p53 inhibition by siRNA mostly blocked OA-induced apoptosis and autophagy. Moreover, OA-induced autophagy was DRAM-dependent and primarily occurred in the mitochondria (mitophagy), where DRAM was localized. In severe steatosis induced by 1200 μM OA, apoptosis was mainly dependent on p53-induced expression of BAX, which was also localized to the mitochondria. Our in vivo study showed that p53 expression increased in both mild and severe hepatosteatosis. Increased DRAM expression and autophagy were identified in mild hepatosteatosis, whereas greater BAX expression was observed in severe hepatosteatosis.Conclusionsp53 may induce apoptosis via different mechanisms. DRAM-mediated mitophagy is a primary apoptotic inducer in mild hepatosteatosis, whereas p53-induced BAX expression mainly induces apoptosis in severe hepatosteatosis.
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