title: Berberine reduces methylation of the MTTP promoter and alleviates fatty liver induced by a high-fat diet in rats.
abstract: High-calorie food leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) through dysregulation of genes involved in lipid metabolism, but the precise mechanism remains unclear. DNA methylation represents one of the mechanisms that contributes to dysregulation of gene expression via interaction with environmental factors. Berberine can alleviate fatty liver in db/db and ob/ob mice. Here, we investigated whether DNA methylation is involved in the pathogenesis of NAFLD induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) and whether berberine improves NAFLD through influencing the methylation status of promoters of key genes. HFD markedly decreased the mRNA levels encoding CPT-1alpha, MTTP, and LDLR in the liver. In parallel, DNA methylation levels in the MTTP promoter of rats with NAFLD were elevated in the liver. Interestingly, berberine reversed the downregulated expression of these genes and selectively inhibited HFD-induced increase in the methylation of MTTP. Consistently, berberine increased hepatic triglyceride (TG) export and ameliorated HFD-induced fatty liver. Furthermore, a close negative correlation was observed between the MTTP expression and its DNA methylation (at sites -113 and -20). These data indicate that DNA methylation of the MTTP promoter likely contributes to its downregulation during HFD-induced NAFLD and, further, that berberine can partially counteract the HFD-elicited dysregulation of MTTP by reversing the methylation state of its promoter, leading to reduced hepatic fat content.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: XinXia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: HongMei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fei
authors.forename: MingHong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: HongGuang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: DaRu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001599:Berberine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004032:Diet; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D007333:Insulin Resistance / Q000502:physiology; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D008079:Lipoproteins, VLDL / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D051381:Rats; D011915:Rats, Inbred BUF; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004041:Dietary Fats; D008079:Lipoproteins, VLDL; D014280:Triglycerides; C106092:microsomal triglyceride transfer protein; D001599:Berberine