Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (Nov 2021)

Combined Analysis of Expression Profiles in a Mouse Model and Patients Identified BHMT2 as a New Regulator of Lipid Metabolism in Metabolic-Associated Fatty Liver Disease

  • Yongqiang Ma,
  • Yongqiang Ma,
  • Zhi Tan,
  • Qiang Li,
  • Qiang Li,
  • Wenling Fan,
  • Guangshun Chen,
  • Guangshun Chen,
  • Yangyang Bin,
  • Yi Zhou,
  • Junfang Yi,
  • Xiaohua Luo,
  • Jieqiong Tan,
  • Zhongzhou Si,
  • Zhongzhou Si,
  • Jiequn Li,
  • Jiequn Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.741710
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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Metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and other metabolic syndromes. Farnesoid X receptor (FXR, NR1H4) plays a prominent role in hepatic lipid metabolism. This study combined the expression of liver genes in FXR knockout (KO) mice and MAFLD patients to identify new pathogenic pathways for MAFLD based on genome-wide transcriptional profiling. In addition, the roles of new target genes in the MAFLD pathogenic pathway were also explored. Two groups of differentially expressed genes were obtained from FXR-KO mice and MAFLD patients by transcriptional analysis of liver tissue samples. The similarities and differences between the two groups of differentially expressed genes were analyzed to identify novel pathogenic pathways and target genes. After the integration analysis of differentially expressed genes, we identified 134 overlapping genes, many of which have been reported to play an important role in lipid metabolism. Our unique analysis method of comparing differential gene expression between FXR-KO mice and patients with MAFLD is useful to identify target genes and pathways that may be strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of MAFLD. The overlapping genes with high specificity were screened using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Through comparison and analysis with the GEO database, we determined that BHMT2 and PKLR could be highly correlated with MAFLD. Clinical data analysis and RNA interference testing in vitro confirmed that BHMT2 may a new regulator of lipid metabolism in MAFLD pathogenesis. These results may provide new ideas for understanding the pathogenesis of MAFLD and thus provide new targets for the treatment of MAFLD.

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