PR001302 (Project)

Description:Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a severe form of steatotic liver injury that can be caused by a variety of stimuli and has a significant mortality rate. A common technique to induce in vitro steatosis involves culturing primary human hepatocytes (PHH) in a fatty acid-enriched media. This study compared the lipidome of PHH cultured in a fatty acid-enriched media to hepatocytes from patients with NASH and healthy controls to determine whether such culture techniques could generate a hepatocellular lipid profile similar to that observed in NASH patients. LC-MS lipidomics analysis of hepatocytes from patients with NASH revealed increases in the total cellular abundance of glycerolipids, phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, phosphatidylglycerols, phosphatidylinositols and phosphatidylserines compared to healthy control hepatocytes. PHH cultured in a fatty acid-enriched environment demonstrated an increase in total lipid abundance, however, changes were limited to glycerolipids; in contrast to NASH hepatocytes, increases in the abundance of phospholipids were not observed.