Induction of steatohepatitis (NASH) with insulin resistance in wildtype B6 mice by a western-type diet containing soybean oil and cholesterol

Title data

Henkel, Janin ; Coleman, Charles Dominic ; Schraplau, Anne ; Jӧhrens, Korinna ; Weber, Daniela ; Castro, José P. ; Hugo, Martin ; Schulz, Tim Julius ; Krämer, Stephanie ; Schürmann, Annette ; Püschel, Gerhard Paul:
Induction of steatohepatitis (NASH) with insulin resistance in wildtype B6 mice by a western-type diet containing soybean oil and cholesterol.
In: Molecular Medicine. Vol. 23 (2017) . - pp. 70-82.
ISSN 1528-3658
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2119/molmed.2016.00203

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Abstract in another language

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are hepatic manifestations of the metabolic syndrome. Many currently used animal models of NAFLD/NASH lack clinical features of either NASH or metabolic syndrome such as hepatic inflammation and fibrosis (e.g. high-fat diets) or overweight and insulin resistance (e.g. methionine-choline-deficient diets) or they are based on monogenetic defects (e.g. ob/ob mice). In the current study, a western-type diet containing soybean oil with high n 6-PUFA and 0.75% cholesterol (SOD+Cho) induced steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis accompanied by hepatic lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress in livers of C57BL/6-mice which in addition showed increased weight gain and insulin resistance, thus displaying a phenotype closely resembling all clinical features of NASH in patients with metabolic syndrome. In striking contrast a soybean oil-containing western-type diet without cholesterol (SOD) induced only mild steatosis but neither hepatic inflammation nor fibrosis, weight gain or insulin resistance. Another high-fat diet mainly consisting of lard and supplemented with fructose in drinking water (LAD+Fru) resulted in more prominent weight gain, insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis than SOD+Cho but livers were devoid of inflammation and fibrosis. Although both LAD+Fru- and SOD+Cho-fed animals had high plasma cholesterol, liver cholesterol was elevated only in SOD+Cho animals. Cholesterol induced expression of chemotactic and inflammatory cytokines in cultured Kupffer cells and rendered hepatocytes more susceptible to apoptosis. Summarizing, dietary cholesterol in SOD+Cho diet may trigger hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. SOD+Cho-fed animals may be a useful disease model displaying many clinical features of patients with the metabolic syndrome and NASH.