The Molecular Mechanism of Hepatic Lipid Metabolism Disorder Caused by NaAsO2 through Regulating the ERK/PPAR Signaling Pathway

• Published in: Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity 2022-03, Vol.2022, p.1-13
• Main Authors: Wu, Liping, Zhang, Shuling, Zhang, Qi, Wei, Shaofeng, Wang, Guoze, Luo, Peng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Arsenic; Fatty acids; Gene expression; Glycerol; Kinases; Lipids; Liver; Metabolic disorders; Poisons; Proteins; Transcription factors
• ISSN: 1942-0900; 1942-0994
• DOI: 10.1155/2022/6405911

Chronic arsenic exposure is a risk factor for human fatty liver disease, and the ERK signaling pathway plays an important role in the regulation of liver lipid metabolism. However, whether ERK plays a role in the progression of arsenic-induced liver lipid metabolism disorder and the specific mechanism remain unclear. Here, by constructing a rat model of liver lipid metabolism disorder induced by chronic arsenic exposure, we demonstrated that ERK might regulate arsenic-induced liver lipid metabolism disorders through the PPAR signaling pathway. Arsenic could upregulate the expression of PPARγ and CD36 in the rat liver, decrease the expression of PPARα and CPT-1 in the rat liver, increase the organ coefficient of the rat liver, decrease the content of TG in rat serum, and promote fat deposition in the rat liver. In the arsenic-induced rat model of hepatic lipid metabolism disorder, we found that the expression of p-ERK was increased. In order to further explore whether the ERK signaling pathway was involved in arsenic-induced liver lipid metabolism disorder, we exposed L-02 cells to different arsenic concentrations, and the results showed that arsenic significantly increased the expression of P-ERK in L-02 cells in a dose-dependent manner. We further treated L-02 cells with ERK inhibitors and found that the expression of TG, PPARα, and CPT-1 in L-02 cells increased, while the expression of P-ERK, PPARγ, and CD36 decreased. In conclusion, ERK may be involved in arsenic-induced liver lipid metabolism disorder by regulating the PPAR signaling pathway. These findings are expected to provide a new targeting strategy for arsenic-induced liver lipid metabolism disorder.