Issue 1, 2022

Steatosis induced by nonylphenol in HepG2 cells and the intervention effect of curcumin

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has increasingly become a serious public health problem. There is growing evidence that nonylphenol (NP) exposure may cause steatosis, but the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. Curcumin (CUR) improves NAFLD-related lipid metabolism disorders and oxidative stress, but its preventive and therapeutic effects on NP-induced steatosis have not been reported. The objective of this investigation was to determine the capability and potential mechanism of NP to induce steatosis in vitro and the intervention of curcumin. HepG2 cells were treated with 0 μM, 20 μM, 30 μM, 40 μM NP for 24 h. Lipid droplets accumulated significantly in HepG2 cells after NP treatment, and the concentration of triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (T-CHO) increased significantly. Simultaneously, lipogenesis gene expression was up-regulated significantly, fatty acid oxidation (FAO) gene expression was significantly down-regulated, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were overproduced. Meanwhile, the expression of p-AMPK/AMPK in the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway was significantly down-regulated and the expression of p-mTOR/mTOR was markedly up-regulated. However, blocking ROS production with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) can reverse these phenomena. In addition, our study found that curcumin effectively ameliorated the effects of NP-induced steatosis. Our study indicates that NP can induce steatosis in HepG2 cells, and may be implicated in inhibiting the ROS-dependent AMPK/mTOR pathway, and that curcumin ameliorates the NAFLD-like changes induced by NP in HepG2 cells.

Graphical abstract: Steatosis induced by nonylphenol in HepG2 cells and the intervention effect of curcumin

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Jul 2021
Accepted
05 Dec 2021
First published
06 Dec 2021

Food Funct., 2022,13, 327-343

Steatosis induced by nonylphenol in HepG2 cells and the intervention effect of curcumin

D. Shan, J. Wang, Q. Di, Q. Jiang and Q. Xu, Food Funct., 2022, 13, 327 DOI: 10.1039/D1FO02481G

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