FGF21 protects against hepatic lipotoxicity and macrophage activation to attenuate fibrogenesis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
- Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
- AstraZeneca, Sweden
- AstraZeneca, United States
- First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
Abstract
Analogues of the hepatokine FGF21 are in clinical development for type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) treatment. Although their glucose-lowering and insulin-sensitizing effects have been largely unraveled, the mechanisms by which they alleviate liver injury have only been scarcely addressed. Here, we aimed to unveil the mechanisms underlying the protective effects of FGF21 on NASH using APOE*3-Leiden.CETP mice, a well-established model for human-like metabolic diseases. Liver-specific FGF21 overexpression was achieved in mice, followed by administration of a high-fat high-cholesterol diet for 23 weeks. FGF21 prevented hepatic lipotoxicity, accompanied by activation of thermogenic tissues and attenuation of adipose tissue inflammation, improvement of hyperglycemia and hypertriglyceridemia, and upregulation of hepatic programs involved in fatty acid oxidation and cholesterol removal. Furthermore, FGF21 inhibited hepatic inflammation, as evidenced by reduced Kupffer cell (KC) activation, diminished monocyte infiltration and lowered accumulation of monocyte-derived macrophages. Moreover, FGF21 decreased lipid- and scar-associated macrophages, which correlated with less hepatic fibrosis as demonstrated by reduced collagen accumulation. Collectively, hepatic FGF21 overexpression limits hepatic lipotoxicity, inflammation and fibrogenesis. Mechanistically, FGF21 blocks hepatic lipid influx and accumulation through combined endocrine and autocrine signaling, respectively, which prevents KC activation and lowers the presence of lipid- and scar-associated macrophages to inhibit fibrogenesis.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file.
Article and author information
Author details
Anne-Christine Andreasson
Kristina Wallenius
Funding
Diabetes Fonds (2015.81.1808)
- Mariëtte R Boon
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research-NWO (VENI grant 91617027)
- Yanan Wang
Chinese Scholarship Council grant (CSC 201606010321)
- Enchen Zhou
The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF18OC0032394)
- Milena Schönke
The Netherlands Cardiovascular Research Initiative: an initiative with support of the Dutch Heart Foundation (CVON-GENIUS-2)
- Patrick CN Rensen
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Pramod Mistry, Yale School of Medicine, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal experiments were carried out according to the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and were approved by the National Committee for Animal Experiments (Protocol No. AVD1160020173305) and by the Ethics Committee on Animal Care and Experimentation of the Leiden University Medical Center (Protocol No. PE.18.034.041).
Version history
- Received: August 30, 2022
- Preprint posted: September 22, 2022 (view preprint)
- Accepted: January 16, 2023
- Accepted Manuscript published: January 17, 2023 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: February 14, 2023 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2023, Liu 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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FGF21 protects against hepatic lipotoxicity and macrophage activation to attenuate fibrogenesis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
eLife 12:e83075.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83075
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