Exercise Intervention Mitigates Pathological Liver Changes in NAFLD Zebrafish by Activating SIRT1/AMPK/NRF2 Signaling
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common disease that causes serious liver damage. Exercise is recognized as a non-pharmacological tool to improve the pathology of NAFLD. However, the antioxidative effects and mechanisms by which exercise ameliorates NAFLD remain unclear. The present st...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/20/10940 |
| Summary: | Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common disease that causes serious liver damage. Exercise is recognized as a non-pharmacological tool to improve the pathology of NAFLD. However, the antioxidative effects and mechanisms by which exercise ameliorates NAFLD remain unclear. The present study conducted exercise training on zebrafish during a 12-week high-fat feeding period to study the antioxidant effect of exercise on the liver. We found that swimming exercise decreased lipid accumulation and improved pathological changes in the liver of high-fat diet-fed zebrafish. Moreover, swimming alleviated NOX4-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction and reduced methanedicarboxylic aldehyde (MDA) levels. We also examined the anti-apoptotic effects of swimming and found that it increased the expression of antiapoptotic factor <i>bcl2</i> and decreased the expression of genes associated with apoptosis (<i>caspase3</i>, <i>bax</i>). Mechanistically, swimming intervention activated SIRT1/AMPK signaling-mediated lipid metabolism and inflammation as well as enhanced AKT and NRF2 activation and upregulated downstream antioxidant genes. In summary, exercise attenuates pathological changes in the liver induced by high-fat diets. The underlying mechanisms might be related to NRF2 and mediated by SIRT1/AMPK signaling. |
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| ISSN: | 1661-6596 1422-0067 |