肝纤维化的表观遗传学研究进展

肝纤维化是常见的慢性进行性肝病,是慢性肝病发展到肝硬化阶段的必经阶段,却有逆转的可能性。肝纤维化的中心环节是肝星状细胞的激活。关于肝星状细胞的激活,除了经典的肝纤维化通路,不断有新的通路和机制出现,包括自噬、内质网应激、氧化应激、胆固醇代谢和表观遗传,这些都揭示了肝星状细胞的活化机制。表观遗传包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和调节性非编码RNAs,这些机制也参与调节肝星状细胞活化和肝纤维化发生,对表观遗传和肝纤维化治疗之间的关系研究具有重要意义。

The progress of epigenetics in development of liver fibrosis

Liver fibrosis is a common chronic progressive liver disease, which is a necessary step from chronic liver disease to cirrhosis. Fortunately, it is reversible. The core step is the activation of hepatic stellate cells. In terms of activation of hepatic stellate cells, new pathways and mechanisms are constantly emerging besides the classic hepatic fibrosis pathway. For example, autophagy, endoplasmic reticulum stress, oxidative stress, cholesterol metabolism, and epigenetics, all involved in the activation mechanism of hepatic stellate cells. Moreover, epigenetics, including DNA methylation, histone modification and regulatory noncoding RNAs are all involved in regulating hepatic stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis, which is of great significance for the study of the relationship between epigenetics and liver fibrosis.