RESUMEN
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the common cancers worldwide, caused by Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatotoxins. Here we report the development of HCC in wild type as well as HCV core protein (HCP)-transgenic zebrafish upon treatment with a hepatotoxin, thioacetamide (TAA). Two-fold accelerated HCC development could be achieved in the TAA-treated transgenic fish, that is, the progression of the disease in TAA-treated wild type zebrafish developed HCC in 12 weeks whereas that of HCP-transgenic zebrafish shortened the HCC progression to 6 weeks. Histopathological observation showed the specific pathological features of HCC. The HCC progression was confirmed through RT-PCR that revealed an up and down regulation of different marker genes at various stages of HCC progression such as, steatohepatitis, fibrosis and HCC. Moreover, HCV core protein expressed in the HCP-transgenic zebrafish and TAA synergistically accelerate the HCC development. It must be mentioned that, this is the first report revealing HCV core protein along with TAA to induce HCC in zebrafish, particularly, in a short period of time comparing to mice model. As zebrafish has already been considered as a good human disease model and in this context, this HCC-zebrafish model may serve as a powerful preclinical platform to study the molecular events in hepatocarcinogenesis, therapeutic strategies and for evaluating chemoprevention strategies in HCC.
Asunto(s)
Hepacivirus/genética , Hepatopatías , Tioacetamida/toxicidad , Proteínas del Núcleo Viral/genética , Pez Cebra/genética , Animales , Animales Modificados Genéticamente , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/inducido químicamente , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/genética , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/virología , Enfermedad Hepática Inducida por Sustancias y Drogas , Cartilla de ADN , Hígado Graso/inducido químicamente , Hígado Graso/genética , Hígado Graso/virología , Hígado/efectos de los fármacos , Hígado/metabolismo , Hígado/patología , Cirrosis Hepática/inducido químicamente , Cirrosis Hepática/genética , Cirrosis Hepática/virología , Hepatopatías/genética , Hepatopatías/virología , Neoplasias Hepáticas/inducido químicamente , Neoplasias Hepáticas/genética , Neoplasias Hepáticas/virología , Microscopía Confocal , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa de Transcriptasa InversaRESUMEN
Steatohepatitis has recently been increasing as a cofactor influencing the progression of fibrosis, cirrhosis, adenoma and carcinoma in liver; however, the mechanisms by which it contributes to liver injury remain uncertain. We induced steatohepatitis in zebrafish embryos using thioacetamide (TAA). TUNEL assay revealed significant increasing of apoptosis in liver after 5 days post fertilization and the increasing of apoptosis was observed to be associated with the up-regulation of apoptotic genes such as, bad, bax, P-38a, caspase-3 and 8, and JNK-1. Histological sections by oil red O stain showed the accumulation of fatty droplets which causes the pushing of the nucleus towards one side. Up-regulation of steatosis markers such as, ACC, adiponectin, PTL, CEBP- alpha and beta, SREBP-1 was also observed. Furthermore, the elevation of glutathione peroxidase in TAA treated embryos indicated that TAA induces lipid peroxidation which leads to causes liver damage. Zebrafish has already been considered as a good human disease model and in this context; TAA-treated zebrafish may serve as a good animal model to study the molecular pathogenesis of steatohepatitis. Moreover, non-availability of specific drugs to prevent steatohepatitis, this animal model may serve as a powerful preclinical platform to study the therapeutic strategies and for evaluating chemoprevention strategies for this disease.