PUBLICATION

A diet-independent zebrafish model for NAFLD recapitulates patient lipid profiles and offers a system for small molecule screening

Authors
Singh, M.K., Yadav, R., Bhaskar, A.K., Sengupta, S., Sachidanandan, C.
ID
ZDB-PUB-221007-4
Date
2022
Source
Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular and cell biology of lipids   1868(1): 159246 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Sachidanandan, Chetana
Keywords
Inflammation, Interleukin 6, Lean NAFLD, PPAR-gamma, Rosiglitazone
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Diet, High-Fat/adverse effects
  • Inflammation/complications
  • Interleukin-6/genetics
  • Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease*/metabolism
  • Rosiglitazone
  • Triglycerides/metabolism
  • Zebrafish/metabolism
PubMed
36202338 Full text @ BBA Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids
Abstract
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) or pathological hepatic lipid overload, is considered to affect obese individuals. However, NAFLD in lean individuals is prevalent, especially in South Asian population. The pathophysiology of lean NAFLD is not well understood and most animal models of NAFLD use the high-fat diet paradigm. To bridge this gap, we have developed a diet-independent model of NAFLD in zebrafish. We have previously shown that chronic systemic inflammation causes metabolic changes in the liver leading to hepatic fat accumulation in an IL6 overexpressing (IL6-OE) zebrafish model. In the present study, we compared the hepatic lipid composition of adult IL6-OE zebrafish to the controls and found an accumulation of saturated triacylglycerols and a reduction in the unsaturated triacylglycerol species reminiscent of NAFLD patients. Zebrafish is an ideal system for chemical genetic screens. We tested whether the hepatic lipid accumulation in the IL6-OE is responsive to chemical treatment. We found that PPAR-gamma agonist Rosiglitazone, known to reduce lipid overload in the high-fat diet models of NAFLD, could ameliorate the fatty liver phenotype of the IL6-OE fish. Rosiglitazone treatment reduced the accumulation of saturated lipids and showed a concomitant increase in unsaturated TAG species in our inflammation-induced NAFLD model. Our observations suggest that the IL6-OE model can be effective for small molecule screening to identify compounds that can reverse hepatic lipid accumulation, especially relevant to lean NAFLD.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping