title: Cytoglobin exhibits anti-fibrosis activity on liver in vivo and in vitro.
abstract: Cytoglobin, generated using genetic engineering method, is a kind of recombinant human stellate cell activation-associated protein. We speculate that it could influence the development of hepatic fibrosis like Sellate cell activation-associated protein which was discovered by Kawada et al. Therefore, we investigated its anti-fibrosis effect on liver both in vivo and in vitro. During our research, we found that cytoglobin showed obvious effect compared with the control group on Thioacetamide-induced liver fibrosis in SD rats, including significantly decrease in aspartate aminotransferase, Hyaluronic acid, laminin and collagen I(Col I) levels in serum and hydroxyproline in livers, which are the important indices reflecting the degree of hepatic fibrosis. Meanwhile, the viability of rat hepatic stellate cell line T6 (HSC-T6) cells was inhibited by cytoglobin and the apoptosis induced by cytoglobin in HSC-T6 cells was detected by Annexin V/PI double staining. Activation of the caspase cascade including caspase-3 for the intrinsic pathways was demonstrated. The results also showed that the expression of Bcl-2 protein decreased whereas that of Bax protein increased, leading to an increase of the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Our results demonstrated that cytoglobin exhibited anti-fibrosis activity on livers in vivo and in vitro, involving apoptosis induction.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 TongJia Xiang, Nanjing 210009, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Ruoyun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wutong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Lifang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D000078842:Cytoglobin; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005914:Globins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: C000627265:CYGB protein, human; C000627268:Cygb protein, rat; D000078842:Cytoglobin; D005914:Globins; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases