No abstract

Background & Aims Alcohol abuse is a major cause of liver injury. The pathologic features of alcoholic liver disease develop over prolonged periods, yet the cellular defense mechanisms against the detrimental effects of alcohol are not well understood. We investigated whether macroautophagy, an evolutionarily conserved cellular mechanism that is commonly activated in response to stress, could protect liver cells from ethanol toxicity. Methods Mice were acutely given ethanol by gavage. The effects of ethanol on primary hepatocytes and hepatic cell lines were studied in vitro. Results Ethanol-induced macroautophagy in the livers of mice and cultured cells required ethanol metabolism, generated reactive oxygen species, and inhibited mTOR signaling. Suppression of macroautophagy with pharmacological agents or small interfering RNAs significantly increased hepatocyte apoptosis and liver injury; macroautophagy therefore protected cells from the toxic effects of ethanol. Macroautophagy induced by ethanol seemed to be selective for cells with damaged mitochondria and accumulated lipid droplets, but not long-lived proteins, which could account for its protective effects. Increasing macroautophagy pharmacologically reduced hepatotoxicity and steatosis associated with acute ethanol exposure. Conclusions Macroautophagy protects against ethanol-induced toxicity in livers of mice. Reagents that modify macroautophagy might be developed as therapeutics for patients with alcoholic liver disease.

Mitochondria are cellular energy powerhouses that play important roles in maintaining cell survival, cell death and cellular metabolic homeostasis. Timely removal of damaged mitochondria via autophagy (mitophagy) is thus critical for cellular homeostasis and function. Mitochondria are reticular organelles that have high plasticity for their dynamic structures and constantly undergo fission and fusion as well as movement through the cytoskeleton. In this review, we discuss the most recent progress on the molecular mechanisms and roles of mitochondrial fission/fusion and mitochondrial motility in mitophagy. We also discuss multiple pathways leading to the quality control of mitochondria in addition to the traditional mitophagy pathway under different conditions.

Autophagy can selectively remove damaged organelles, including mitochondria, and in turn protect against mitochondria damage induced-cell death. Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose can cause liver injury in animals and humans by inducing mitochondria damage and subsequent necrosis in hepatocytes. Although many detrimental mechanisms have been reported to be responsible for APAP-induced hepatotoxicity, it is not known whether APAP can modulate autophagy to regulate hepatotoxicity in hepatocytes. To test the hypothesis that autophagy may play a critical protective role against APAP-induced hepatotoxicity, primary cultured mouse hepatocytes and GFP-LC3 transgenic mice were treated with APAP. By using a series of morphological and biochemical autophagic flux assays, we found that APAP induced autophagy both in the in vivo mouse liver and in primary cultured hepatocytes. We also found that APAP treatment might suppress mTOR in hepatocytes and APAP-induced autophagy was suppressed by N-acetylcysteine, suggesting APAP mitochondrial protein binding and the subsequent production of reactive oxygen species may play an important role in APAP-induced autophagy. Pharmacological inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine or chloroquine further exacerbated APAP-induced hepatotoxicity. In contrast, induction of autophagy by rapamycin inhibited APAP-induced hepatotoxicity. Conclusion APAP overdose induces autophagy which attenuates APAP-induced liver cell death by removing damaged mitochondria.

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is a major cause of hepatotoxicity and acute liver failure in the US, but the pathophysiology is incompletely understood. Despite evidence for apoptotic signaling, hepatic cell death after APAP is generally considered necrotic in mice and in humans. Recent findings suggest that the receptor interacting protein kinase 3 (RIP3) acts as a switch from apoptosis to necrosis (programmed necrosis). Thus, the aim of the current investigation was to determine if RIP3 is involved in APAP-induced liver cell death. APAP (200–300 mg/kg) caused glutathione depletion and protein adduct formation, oxidant stress, mitochondrial release of apoptosis inducing factor, and nuclear DNA fragmentation resulting in centrilobular necrosis in C57Bl/6J mice. Inhibiting RIP3 protein induction with anti-sense morpholinos in wild-type animals or using RIP3-deficient mice had no effect on protein adduct formation but attenuated all other parameters, including necrotic cell death, at 6h after APAP. In addition, cultured hepatocytes from RIP3-deficient mice showed reduced injury compared to wild-type cells after 24h. Interestingly, APAP-induced mitochondrial translocation of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1), the initiator of mitochondrial fission, was inhibited by reduced RIP3 protein expression and the Drp1 inhibitor MDIVI reduced APAP-induced cell death at 24h. All of these protective effects were lost after 24h in vivo or 48h in vitro. Conclusion: RIP3 is an early mediator of APAP hepatotoxicity, involving modulation of mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidant stress. Controlling RIP3 expression could be a promising new approach to reduce APAP-induced liver injury, but requires complementary strategies to control mitochondrial dysfunction for long-term protection.

We found that ethanol feeding plus an acute binge decreased hepatic expression of TFEB, which is required for lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy. Strategies to block mTOR activity or increase levels of TFEB might be developed to protect the liver from ethanol-induced damage.

Alcoholic liver disease claims two million lives per year. We previously reported that autophagy protected against alcohol-induced liver injury and steatosis by removing damaged mitochondria. However, the mechanisms for removal of these mitochondria are unknown. Parkin is an evolutionarily conserved E3 ligase that is recruited to damaged mitochondria to initiate ubiquitination of mitochondrial outer membrane proteins and subsequent mitochondrial degradation by mitophagy. In addition to its role in mitophagy, Parkin has been shown to have other roles in maintaining mitochondrial function. We investigated whether Parkin protected against alcohol-induced liver injury and steatosis using wild-type (WT) and Parkin knockout (KO) mice treated with alcohol by the acute-binge and Gao-binge (chronic plus acute-binge) models. We found that Parkin protected against liver injury in both alcohol models, likely because of Parkin's role in maintaining a population of healthy mitochondria. Alcohol caused greater mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress in Parkin KO livers compared with WT livers. After alcohol treatment, Parkin KO mice had severely swollen and damaged mitochondria that lacked cristae, which were not seen in WT mice. Furthermore, Parkin KO mice had decreased mitophagy, β-oxidation, mitochondrial respiration, and cytochrome c oxidase activity after acute alcohol treatment compared with WT mice. Interestingly, liver mitochondria seemed able to adapt to alcohol treatment, but Parkin KO mouse liver mitochondria had less capacity to adapt to Gao-binge treatment compared with WT mouse liver mitochondria. Overall, our findings indicate that Parkin is an important mediator of protection against alcohol-induced mitochondrial damage, steatosis, and liver injury.

Background & Aims Acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury is the most frequent cause of acute liver failure in the US and many other countries. Metabolism of APAP results in formation of APAP protein adducts (APAP-AD) in hepatocytes and triggers mitochondrial dysfunction and necrosis. However, the mechanisms for how APAP-AD are removed from hepatocytes remain unknown. Methods Mice or primary hepatocytes were treated with APAP. APAP-AD were determined by immunoblot, immunostaining and HPLC-ED analysis. Results We found that APAP-AD were detected at 1 hr, peaked at approximately 2 hrs, declined at 6 hrs and almost full removed at 24 hrs post treatment with APAP in mouse livers and in primary mouse hepatocytes. APAP-AD displayed a punctate pattern and were co-localized with GFP-LC3 positive autophagosomes and Lamp1 positive lysosomes in APAP-treated primary hepatocytes. Moreover, isolated autophagosomes and autolysosomes from APAP-treated mouse livers contained APAP-AD, suggesting autophagy may selectively remove APAP-AD. APAP-AD were detected in both detergent soluble and insoluble pools in APAP-treated mouse livers and hepatocytes. More importantly, pharmacological inhibition of autophagy by leupeptin or chloroquine increased whereas induction of autophagy by Torin 1 decreased serum APAP-AD levels in APAP-treated mice, which correlated with alanine aminotransferase levels and liver necrosis. Furthermore, SQSTM1/p62, an autophagy receptor protein, was recruited to APAP-AD. Adenovirus-mediated shRNA knockdown of SQSTM1/p62 led to increased APAP-AD and necrosis in primary hepatocytes. Conclusions Our data indicate that APAP-AD are removed through selective autophagy. Pharmacological induction of autophagy may be a novel promising approach for treating APAP-induced liver injury.