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Review
. 2021 Dec 24:8:823277.
doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.823277. eCollection 2021.

Beyond the Liver: Liver-Eye Communication in Clinical and Experimental Aspects

Tian-Hao Yuan  1   2 , Zhen-Sheng Yue  1   3 , Guo-Heng Zhang  1 , Lin Wang  3 , Guo-Rui Dou  1
Affiliations
Review

Beyond the Liver: Liver-Eye Communication in Clinical and Experimental Aspects

Tian-Hao Yuan et al. Front Mol Biosci. .

Abstract

The communication between organs participates in the regulation of body homeostasis under physiological conditions and the progression and adaptation of diseases under pathological conditions. The communication between the liver and the eyes has been received more and more attention. In this review, we summarized some molecular mediators that can reflect the relationship between the liver and the eye, and then extended the metabolic relationship between the liver and the eye. We also summarized some typical diseases and phenotypes that have been able to reflect the liver-eye connection in the clinic, especially non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). The close connection between the liver and the eye is reflected through multiple pathways such as metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation. In addition, we presented the connection between the liver and the eye in traditional Chinese medicine, and introduced the fact that artificial intelligence may use the close connection between the liver and the eye to help us solve some practical clinical problems. Paying attention to liver-eye communication will help us have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of certain communication between liver diseases and eyes, and provide new ideas for their potential therapeutic strategy.

Keywords: communication molecule; diabetic retinopathy; liver-eye communication; metabolism; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; traditional Chinese medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Effective communication molecules from the liver to eye under physiological and pathological conditions. DR, diabetic retinopathy; AMD, age related macular degeneration; FGF21, Fibroblast Growth Factor 21; HGF, hepatocyte growth factor; ANGPTL, Angiopoietin-like proteins; PEDF, pigment epithelium-derived factor.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Distinct communicating by metabolic factors between liver and eye. DR, diabetic retinopathy; AMD, age related macular degeneration.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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