Vitamin A Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin A, including details on retinol, benefits, dosage, supplements, deficiency, information.

Antagonizing TGF-beta induced liver fibrosis by a retinoic acid derivative through regulation of ROS and calcium influx.

Yang KL, Chang WT, Chuang CC, Hung KC, Li EI

Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.

Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) mediates the regulation of extracellular matrix via reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium influx, both are activators of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) which play a critical role in hepatic fibrogenesis. Hence one can use ROS assay as the main screening tool for molecules that might antagonize the process of liver fibrosis. A retinoic acid derivative isolated from the mycelium of Phellinus linteus that down-regulates ROS generation and calcium influx in HSC-T6 cells was thus obtained in our screening process. The retinoic acid derivative also reverses an early liver fibrosis, as assayed by liver contents of hydroxyproline, alpha-smooth muscle actin (alpha-SMA), and collagen 1A2, in an early liver fibrosis model we established previously where an inducible expression vector containing a TGF-beta gene was hydrodynamically transferred into a testing animal. Retinoic acid derivative thus acts both in vitro and in vivo to prevent liver fibrosis at an early phase.

Published 6 December 2007 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 365(3): 484-9.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Vitamin A Research Today. All Rights Reserved.