Importance of Serum Amino Acid Profile for Induction of Hepatic Steatosis under Protein Malnutrition

We previously reported that a low-protein diet caused animals to develop fatty liver containing a high level of triglycerides (TG), similar to the human nutritional disorder “kwashiorkor”. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we cultured hepatocytes in amino acid-sufficient or deficient medium....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2018-04, Vol.8 (1), p.5461-11, Article 5461
Main Authors: Nishi, Hiroki, Yamanaka, Daisuke, Kamei, Hiroyasu, Goda, Yuki, Kumano, Mikako, Toyoshima, Yuka, Takenaka, Asako, Masuda, Masato, Nakabayashi, Yasushi, Shioya, Ryuji, Kataoka, Naoyuki, Hakuno, Fumihiko, Takahashi, Shin-Ichiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Accumulation
Amino acid composition
Amino acids
Arginine
Diet
Dietary supplements
Fatty liver
Glutamic acid
Hepatocytes
Hormones
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lipids
Low protein diet
Malnutrition
multidisciplinary
Nutrient deficiency
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Steatosis
Threonine
Triglycerides
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Summary:We previously reported that a low-protein diet caused animals to develop fatty liver containing a high level of triglycerides (TG), similar to the human nutritional disorder “kwashiorkor”. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we cultured hepatocytes in amino acid-sufficient or deficient medium. Surprisingly, the intracellular TG level was increased by amino acid deficiency without addition of any lipids or hormones, accompanied by enhanced lipid synthesis, indicating that hepatocytes themselves monitored the extracellular amino acid concentrations to induce lipid accumulation in a cell-autonomous manner. We then confirmed that a low-amino acid diet also resulted in the development of fatty liver, and supplementation of the low-amino acid diet with glutamic acid to compensate the loss of nitrogen source did not completely suppress the hepatic TG accumulation. Only a dietary arginine or threonine deficiency was sufficient to induce hepatic TG accumulation. However, supplementation of a low-amino acid diet with arginine or threonine failed to reverse it. In silico analysis succeeded in predicting liver TG level from the serum amino acid profile. Based on these results, we conclude that dietary amino acid composition dynamically affects the serum amino acid profile, which is sensed by hepatocytes and lipid synthesis was activated cell-autonomously, leading to hepatic steatosis.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-23640-8