title: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma in galectin-3 knockout mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a growing health concern due to its rapidly increasing prevalence worldwide. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progressing form of NAFLD, and recently many studies have reported that it could eventually develop into hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We previously reported that 6-month-old male galectin-3 knockout (gal3(-/-)) mice developed clinicopathological features similar to those of NAFLD in humans. Our aim was to investigate the changes in liver histology in gal3(-/-) mice by long-term observation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We initially investigated three 15-month-old gal3(-/-) mice, of which two developed multiple liver nodules with dysplastic changes. Then, we histopathologically examined the liver specimens of the 15-, 20- and 25-month-old gal3(-/-) mice and attempted to evaluate the liver morphology by contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) before sacrifice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the age of 15 months or later, gal3(-/-) mice developed liver nodules with varying degrees of architectural and nuclear atypia based on mild to moderate delicate zone 3 fibrosis. In addition, we successfully confirmed the presence of some of the liver nodules by CT. We report herein that gal3(-/-) mice develop dysplastic liver nodules and HCC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We believe that it would be interesting to use this murine model to investigate liver carcinogenesis based on a natural history of NAFLD. Furthermore, CT scanning might be a useful tool for longitudinal evaluation of morphological changes in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Diagnostic Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuneyama
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nomoto
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Thucydides L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Salunga
authors.forename: Takahiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miwa
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murai
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hiraga
authors.forename: Daniel K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Fu-Tong
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takano