1. A Combination of Leucine, Metformin, and Sildenafil Treats Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Steatohepatitis in Mice
- Author
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Antje Bruckbauer, Jheelam Banerjee, Lizhi Fu, Fenfen Li, Qiang Cao, Xin Cui, Rui Wu, Hang Shi, Bingzhong Xue, and Michael B. Zemel
- Subjects
Diseases of the digestive system. Gastroenterology ,RC799-869 - Abstract
Sirt1, AMPK, and eNOS modulate hepatic energy metabolism and inflammation and are key players in the development of NASH. L-leucine, an allosteric Sirt1 activator, synergizes with low doses of metformin or sildenafil on the AMPK-eNOS-Sirt1 pathway to reverse mild NAFLD in preclinical mouse models. Here we tested a possible multicomponent synergy to yield greater therapeutic efficacy in NAFLD/NASH. Liver cells and macrophages or an atherogenic diet induced NASH mouse model was treated with two-way and three-way combinations. The three-way combination Sild-Met-Leu increased hepatic fatty acid oxidation and reduced lipogenic gene expression and inflammatory marker in vitro. In mice, Sild-Met-Leu reduced the diet induced increases of ALT, TGFβ, PAI-1, IL1β, and TNFα, hepatic collagen expression, and nearly completely reversed hepatocyte ballooning and triglyceride accumulation, while all two-way combinations had only modest effects. Therefore, these data provide preclinical evidence for therapeutic efficacy of Sild-Met-Leu in the treatment of NAFLD and NASH.
- Published
- 2016
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