title: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma: lessons from hepatocyte-specific phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN)-deficient mice.
abstract: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a term used to describe a spectrum of conditions characterized by histological findings of hepatic macrovesicular steatosis with inflammation in individuals who consume little or no alcohol. The NASH patients progress to liver cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hepatocyte-specific phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN)-deficient mice (PTEN-deficient mice), which the authors had generated previously, showed massive hepatomegaly and steatohepatitis with triglyceride accumulation followed by liver fibrosis and HCC, a phenotype similar to human NASH. Therefore, it was shown that PTEN deficiency in hepatocytes could induce hepatic steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis and tumors and that PTEN-deficient mice were a useful animal model for not only the understanding of the pathogenesis of NASH but also the development of treatment for NASH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Akita School of Medicine, Akia, Japan. sumio@doc.med.akita-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Sumio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Horie
authors.forename: Ei
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kataoka
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dohmen
authors.forename: Shigetoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohshima
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000503:physiopathology*; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009154:Mutation; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase; C487757:Pten protein, mouse