DHEA Protects Human Cholangiocytes and Hepatocytes against Apoptosis and Oxidative Stress.

ABSTRACT: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a rare chronic cholestatic and immune-mediated liver disease of unknown aetiology that targets intrahepatic bile duct cells (cholangiocytes) and primarily affects postmenopausal women, when their estrogen levels sharply decrease. An impaired cholangiocyte response to estrogen characterizes the terminal stage of the disease, as this is when an inefficiency of cholangiocyte proliferation, in balancing the loss of intrahepatic bile ducts, is observed. Here, we report that the estrogen precursor dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its sulfate metabolites, DHEA-S and 17 β-estradiol, enhance the proliferation of cholangiocytes and hepatocytes in vitro. Flow cytometry analysis showed that DHEA and DHEA-S decreased glyco-chenodeoxycholic acid (GCDC)-driven apopto

SUBMITTER: Kilanczyk E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8947473 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature