Antioxidant N-Acetylcysteine Attenuates Hepatocarcinogenesis by Inhibiting ROS/ER Stress in TLR2 Deficient Mouse

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains one of the most deadly solid tumor malignancies worldwide. We recently find that the loss of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) activities promotes the diethylnitrosamine (DEN) induced hepatocellular carcinogenesis and tumor progression, which associates with an abundant accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. This finding suggests that the ROS/ER stress plays a role in TLR2 modulated carcinogenesis of HCC. To investigate the mechanism of TLR2 activity defending against hepatocarcinogenesis, the TLR2-deficient mice were treated with or without antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) before DEN administration. We found that pretreatment of these animals with NAC attenuated carcinogenesis and progression of HCC in the TLR2-deficient mice, declined ROS/ER stress, and alleviated the unfold protein response and inflammatory response in TLR2-deficient liver tissue. Moreover, the NAC treatment significantly reduced the enhanced aggregation of p62 and Mallory-Denk bodies in the DEN-induced HCC liver tissue, suggesting that NAC treatment improves the suppressive autophagic flux in the TLR2-deficient liver. These findings indicate that TLR2 activity defends against hepatocarcinogenesis through diminishing the accumulation of ROS and alleviating ER stress and unfold protein response mediated inflammatory response in the liver.