Weight loss, insulin resistance, and study design confound results in a meta-analysis of animal models of fatty liver
- University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Abstract
The classical drug development pipeline necessitates studies using animal models of human disease to gauge future efficacy in humans, however there is a low conversion rate from success in animals to humans. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a complex chronic disease without any established therapies and a major field of animal research. We performed a meta-analysis with meta-regression of 603 interventional rodent studies (10,364 animals) in NAFLD to assess which variables influenced treatment response. Weight loss and alleviation of insulin resistance were consistently associated with improvement in NAFLD. Multiple drug classes that do not affect weight in humans caused weight loss in animals. Other study design variables, such as age of animals and dietary composition, influenced the magnitude of treatment effect. Publication bias may have increased effect estimates by 37-79%. These findings help to explain the challenge of reproducibility and translation within the field of metabolism.
Data availability
The raw dataset used for analysis, including references to individual studies, are available Figure 1 - Source Data and deposited in the Dryad repository at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcgc.R code used for analysis are available in Supplementary Data.Source data files have been provided for Figures 2-8.
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Data from: Weight loss, insulin resistance, and study design confound results in a meta-analysis of animal models of fatty liverDryad Digital Repository, 10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcgc.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Wellcome Trust (216329/Z/19/Z)
- Jake P Mann
European Society for Paediatric Research (Young Investigator Start-Up Grant)
- Jake P Mann
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Hunter et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Weight loss, insulin resistance, and study design confound results in a meta-analysis of animal models of fatty liver
eLife 9:e56573.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56573
Further reading
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- Cell Biology
- Medicine
In pulmonary hypertension, a combination of metabolic and mechanical dysfunction leads to irreversible vascular damage.
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- Cell Biology
- Medicine
Background:
Pulmonary vascular remodeling is a progressive pathological process characterized by functional alterations within pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) and adventitial fibroblasts (PAAFs). Mechanisms driving the transition to a diseased phenotype remain elusive.
Methods:
We combined transcriptomic and proteomic profiling with phenotypic characterization of source-matched cells from healthy controls and individuals with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). Bidirectional cellular crosstalk was examined using direct and indirect co-culture models, and phenotypic responses were assessed via transcriptome analysis.
Results:
PASMC and PAAF undergo distinct phenotypic shifts during pulmonary vascular remodeling, with limited shared features, such as reduced mitochondrial content and hyperpolarization. IPAH-PASMC exhibit increased glycosaminoglycan production and downregulation of contractile machinery, while IPAH-PAAF display a hyperproliferative phenotype. We identified alterations in extracellular matrix components, including laminin and collagen, alongside pentraxin-3 and hepatocyte growth factor, as potential regulators of PASMC phenotypic transitions mediated by PAAF.
Conclusions:
While PASMCs and PAAFs retain their core cellular identities, they acquire distinct disease-associated states. These findings provide new insights into the dynamic interplay of pulmonary vascular mesenchymal cells in disease pathogenesis.
Funding:
This work was supported by Cardio-Pulmonary Institute EXC 2026 390649896 (GK) and Austrian Science Fund (FWF) grant I 4651-B (SC).
