Hippo signaling pathway: Bile acid metabolism affects liver regeneration and cancer.

How does the liver perceive the start and stop of growth? Can it regulate its growth and prevent cancer? A study published recently in the international lysmic journal Developmental Cells may make this idea come true.
this latest result comes from Xiamen University's National Key Laboratory of Cell Stress Biology Professor Zhou Dawang team, the new research through the blood of a cytokine, relying on a specific mechanism to regulate bile acid metabolism, can control liver regeneration, size and cancer! Through systematic studies of a variety of mouse experimental models and clinical samples of liver cancer, the team initially explained the abnormal increase of bile acid levels in the body due to abnormal lying acid metabolism, and finally promoted the pathological mechanism of liver swelling and liver cancer, which will provide an important theoretical basis for regulating the clinical application of liver regeneration and preventing the emergence of liver cancer.
bile acid metabolism affects liver regeneration and cancer is well known, the liver is an important metabolic organ of the human body, it has a special function, that is, in response to physiological and pathological stimuli can maintain a stable size and has a strong repair and regeneration capacity, "even after damage or partial removal, the liver can still be restored to normal size through a series of fine regeneration process," Zhou Told Science and Technology Daily, but the liver perception of tissue damage and then start regenerative procedures.
bile acid metabolism is an important physiological function of the liver.
liver cells through a series of hydroxy reactions to convert cholesterol into bile acid, and transported to the gallbladder storage, when the gallbladder shrinks, bile acid with the bile into the intestine, participate in the fat emulsification process, and then the back intestine is reabsorbed into the blood, through the door vein back to the liver into the gallbladder, and some will be excreted through the feces, these constitute the liver circulation of bile acid.
in early embryos, the failure to form a circulatory circulation of the liver and intestines can cause the growth of bile in the liver, which may be an important factor in promoting the early development and growth of the liver.
however, some clinical studies have shown that the metabolic abnormality of bile acid in adult livers can cause excessive bile production and siltation, leading to liver enlargement and tumor development.
to find the cytokine signaling pathway to regulate liver cancer is a hot field in recent years, and it plays a vital role in organ development, tissue regeneration and size regulation from fruit flies to mammalian individuals.
Zhou Dawang has been working deep lying in this field since his return, and has published several important papers in a row.
scientists found in the study that specific knockout or inactivation of members of the Hippo pathway in the liver of mice can cause the liver to overgrow until cancer.
However, the specific external factors in regulating the Hippo signaling pathway to maintain liver size steady state and inhibit the occurrence of cancer, has been an open problem in the field.
In this latest study, Zhou Dawang's team first used mouse conjoined symbiosis experiments and advanced mass spectrometry techniques to discover a fibrous growth factor in the serum that activates the key kinases of hippo signaling pathways to activate the pathway and inhibit liver growth.
they further found that the mechanism can regulate the metabolism of bile acid to make it in a stable state, when the Hippo signaling pathway is not able to function, will lead to abnormal lying of bile acid in mice and cause a large accumulation of bile acid in the body, high levels of bile acid can promote liver growth and eventually produce tumors.
feeding can reduce the level of bile acid in the body of bile acid anti-biliamide, can effectively alleviate liver overgrowth and tumor formation.
" through the analysis of clinical samples of liver cancer patients, it is revealed that Hippo signaling pathway inactivation leads to abnormal bile acid anabolic abnormalities, which may be a common phenomenon of liver cancer in humans and an important factor of disease."
," said Professor Zhou.
this study is aimed at controlling the Hippo pathway to regulate bile acid metabolism, which is of great reference to liver damage repair regeneration and treatment of liver cancer and other diseases.
Source: Science Daily.