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Chronic liver disease is known as the silent killer because it shows no obvious symptoms until the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. Therefore, making a correct diagnosis early in the progression of the disease can be a clinical challenge.
An international team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST, has identified a new pathway for regulating extracellular matrix (ECM) -induced signaling pathways. This could serve as a new diagnostic marker and therapeutic target in the fight against chronic liver diseases.
Under the direction of Professor Jiyoung Park of the UNIST Faculty of Life Sciences, the research team discovered that endotrophin (ETP) plays a crucial role in the production of drugs. a pathological microenvironment in liver tissues of chronic liver diseases. ETP is a marker of type VI collagen formation (COL6), called the link between obesity and cancer.
"FTT levels in adipose tissue are high in obesity or diabetes and are badociated with fibrosis, inflammation, and angiogenesis of adipose tissue, resulting in fatty tissue metabolic dysfunction and systemic resistance." to insulin, "says Professor Park, who discovered the ETP in 2012." identifying the correlation between ETP and chronic liver disease, this study has opened new doors in the fight against liver diseases. "
The study reveals that ETP plays an important role in the interaction between "hepatocytes" and "non-parenchymal cells" in the progression of liver disease, as follows: the signaling pathways of ETP kill hepatocytes,? the substances of dead hepatocytes interact with hepatocytes,? cause inflammation and make the liver hard. Finally, if the vicious cycle leading to "apoptosis – fibrosis – inflammation" continues and? chronic liver disease and liver cancer are also present.
In this work, Professor Park and her research team examined the liver tissues of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and discovered that the presence of PTE in tumor-adjacent areas was strongly badociated with a poor prognosis in patients with HCC. In addition, to evaluate the direct function of ETP in liver tissues, the research team generated an inducible and liver-specific transgenic mouse (Alb-ETP) and found that the overexpression of ETP was a triggers liver cancer.
"Therapeutic antibodies that inhibit the activity of ETP can be used to break the vicious cycle that occurs between liver tissue cells," says Professor Park. "This suggests that ETP could be developed as a target substance for a specific therapeutic agent intended for the treatment of patients with chronic liver disease."
"ETP is an extracellular substance easily detectable in the blood," says Professor Park. "ETP, which appears at the early stage of chronic liver disease, can also serve as an early diagnostic marker."
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