The sex steroid precursor dehydroepiandrosterone prevents nonalcoholic steatohepatitis by activating the AMPK pathway mediated by GPR30.

ABSTRACT: The prevalence of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) caused by estrogen deficiency increased sharply in recent decades and has become a major threat to liver health in postmenopausal women. There is no effective strategy to control the incidence and development of NASH. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is the most abundant circulating steroid with immune and metabolic regulatory properties, and its level markedly declines with increasing age in humans. Importantly, DHEA can convert into active sex hormones depending on the local needs of target tissues with little diffusion, which serves to avoid systemic side-effects from other tissues' exposure to estrogen. Here, we found that DHEA prevented the incidence and development of NASH, which is characterized by the reduction of hepatic steatosis

SUBMITTER: Li L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8604675 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature