20 weeks western diet fed hepatic HKDC1 knockout female mice 16s gut microbiome sequencing
Metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), the inflammatory stage of MASLD, will soon be one of the primary causes of liver-related complications, including advanced fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Its steady increase in both the US and the global population is devastating. Between the two genders, more women are suffering from MASH compared to the man due to estrogen deficiency caused by polycystic ovary syndrome or menopause. Our published data shows a clear positive association between the progression of liver disease and the expression of novel hexokinase HKDC1 in the liver. Targeting HKDC1, which is highly expressed in pathological hepatocytes (in MASH) but negligible in normal hepatocytes, represents a highly selective approach. Therefore, we hypothesized that liver-specific deletion of HKDC1 will protect against diet-induced obesity and the progression of MASH to fibrosis. We used an early-onset liver knockout (LKO) of HKDC1 by crossing HKDC1 floxed mice with Albumin Cre mice to test our hypothesis. We fed the Western Diet to HKDC1LKO female mice along with HKDC1 floxed mice (HKDC1fl/fl; as Controls) for 28 weeks. The gut microbiome species of these mice were sequenced to understands the hepatic HKDC1 deletion effects on the gut microbiome species