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. 2014:2014:502542.
doi: 10.1155/2014/502542. Epub 2014 Apr 23.

Endocannabinoid receptors gene expression in morbidly obese women with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Teresa Auguet  1 , Alba Berlanga  2 , Esther Guiu-Jurado  2 , Ximena Terra  2 , Salomé Martinez  3 , Carmen Aguilar  2 , Elisa Filiu  4 , Ajla Alibalic  4 , Fàtima Sabench  5 , Mercé Hernández  5 , Daniel Del Castillo  5 , Cristóbal Richart  1
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Endocannabinoid receptors gene expression in morbidly obese women with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Teresa Auguet et al. Biomed Res Int. 2014.

Abstract

Background: Recent reports suggest a role for the endocannabinoid system in the pathology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between liver expression of cannabinoid (CB) receptor subtypes, CB1 and CB2, in morbidly obese (MO) women with different histological stages of NAFLD.

Methods: We analysed hepatic CB1 and CB2 mRNA expression, and the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism in 72 MO women, subclassified by liver histology into MO with normal liver (NL, n = 16), simple steatosis (SS, n = 28), and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, n = 28) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and RT-PCR.

Results: We found that CB1 mRNA expression was significantly higher in NASH compared with SS and correlated negatively with PPARα. Regarding CB2, CB2 mRNA expression correlated positively with ACC1, PPARγ, IL6, TNFα, resistin, and adiponectin.

Conclusions: The increased expression of CB1 in NASH and the negative correlation with PPARα suggest a deleterious role of CB1 in NAFLD. Regarding CB2, its positive correlation with the anti-inflammatory molecule adiponectin and, paradoxically, with inflammatory genes suggests that this receptor has a dual role. Taken together, our results suggest that endocannabinoid receptors might be involved in the pathogenesis of NAFLD, a finding which justifies further study.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Liver CB1 and CB2 mRNA expression in morbidly obese women classified according to the liver pathology. NL: with normal liver histology; SS: simple steatosis; NASH: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Results are shown as mean ± SD. P < 0.05 is considered statistically significant.
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