Loss of hepatic SMLR1 causes hepatosteatosis and protects against atherosclerosis due to decreased hepatic VLDL secretion.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

The assembly and secretion of VLDL from the liver, a pathway that affects hepatic and plasma lipids, remains incompletely understood. We set out to identify players in the VLDL biogenesis pathway by identifying genes that are co-expressed with the MTTP gene that encodes for microsomal triglyceride transfer protein, key to the lipidation of apolipoprotein B, the core protein of VLDL. Using human and murine transcriptomic data sets, we identified small leucine-rich protein 1 ( SMLR1 ), encoding for small leucine-rich protein 1, a protein of unknown function that is exclusively expressed in liver and small intestine.

Approach and results

To assess the role of SMLR1 in the liver, we used somatic CRISPR/CRISPR-associated protein 9 gene editing to silence murin

SUBMITTER: van Zwol W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10581432 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature