Dietary sucrose is essential to the development of liver injury in the methionine-choline-deficient model of steatohepatitis.

ABSTRACT: Methionine-choline-deficient (MCD) diets cause steatohepatitis in rodents and are used to study the pathophysiology of fatty liver disease in human beings. The most widely used commercial MCD formulas not only lack methionine and choline but also contain excess sucrose and fat. The objective of this study was to determine whether dietary sucrose in the MCD formula plays a role in the pathogenesis of MCD-related liver disease. We prepared two custom MCD formulas, one containing sucrose as the principal carbohydrate and the other substituting sucrose with starch. Mice fed the sucrose-enriched formula developed typical features of MCD-related liver disease, including hepatic steatosis, hepatocellular apoptosis, alanine aminotransferase elevation, lipid peroxidation, and hepatic inflammation.

SUBMITTER: Pickens MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2739762 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature