Role of serotonin in fatty acid-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Maureen Böhle¹  Synia Haub¹  Yvonne Ritze¹  Astrid Hubert¹  Stephan C Bischoff¹  Paul Enck²  Stephan Zipfel² 

[1] Department of Nutritional Medicine, University of Hohenheim, Fruwirthstr. 12, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany;Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany;

关键词: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease;    Saturated;    Monounsaturated;    Polyunsaturated fatty acids in diet;    Serotonin;    Intestinal permeability;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-13-169

 received in 2013-01-27, accepted in 2013-11-28,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSaturated fatty acids are thought to be of relevance for the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and obesity. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In previous studies we found that food-derived carbohydrates such as fructose alter the intestinal serotonergic system while inducing fatty liver disease in mice. Here, we examined the effect of fatty acid quantity (11% versus 15%) and quality (saturated, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fatty acids) on hepatic fat accumulation, intestinal barrier and the intestinal serotonergic system.MethodsC57BL/6 mice had free access to diets enriched with one of the three fatty acids or standard diet, for 8 weeks. In an additional experiment mice were fed diets enriched with saturated, monounsaturated fatty acids or standard diet supplemented with tryptophan (0.4 g/(kg.d), 8 weeks) or not. Hepatic fat accumulation, small intestinal barrier impairment and components of the serotonergic system were measured with RT-PCR, western blot or immunoassays. For statistical analysis t-test and one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test and Bartlett’s test for equal variances was used.ResultsHepatic triglycerides, liver weight and liver to body weight ratio were significantly changed depending on the fat quality but not fat quantity. In contrast, fat quantity but not quality decreased the expression of the tight junction proteins occludin and claudin-1 in the small intestine. These changes seemed to result in enhanced portal vein endotoxin concentrations and fatty liver disease after feeding diet enriched with saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids but not polyunsaturated fatty acids. Neither fatty acid quantity nor quality significantly influenced the intestinal serotonergic system. Similarly, tryptophan supplementation had no impact on small intestinal barrier or fatty liver disease.ConclusionIn conclusion, diets rich in saturated or monounsaturated fatty acids promote the development of fatty liver disease in mice, likely by a dysfunction of the small intestinal mucosal barrier.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Ritze et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.