Effects of apoptosis on liver aging

Abstract

As an irreversible and perennial process, aging is accompanied by functional and morphological declines in organs. Generally, aging liver exhibits a decline in volume and hepatic blood flow. Even with a preeminent regenerative capacity to restore its functions after liver cell loss, its biosynthesis and metabolism abilities decline, and these are difficult to restore to previous standards. Apoptosis is a programmed death process via intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, in which Bcl-2 family proteins and apoptosis-related genes, such as p21 and p53 , are involved. Apoptosis inflicts both favorable and adverse influences on liver aging. Apoptosis eliminates transformed abnormal cells but promotes age-related liver diseases, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. We summarize the roles of apoptosis in liver aging and age-related liver diseases.

ROS‐mediated PERK‐eIF2α‐ATF4 pathway plays an important role in arsenite‐induced L‐02 cells apoptosis via regulating CHOP‐DR5 signaling

“…Different degree of liver injury has been reported in population with exposure to arsenic 32 . Apoptosis is one of the important pathophysiological hallmarks of liver aging and age‐related liver diseases 33,34 . Arsenic‐induced apoptosis has been determined in hepatic tissues and primary hepatocytes 15,16 .…”

Apoptosis Disorder, a Key Pathogenesis of HCMV-Related Diseases

“…The extrinsic pathway mainly involves special death receptors by activating inward signals. Unlike the extrinsic pathway, the intrinsic pathway depends on intracellular organelles, such as the mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) [ 87 , 88 ]. The apoptotic signaling pathways and key effector genes/proteins regulated by HCMV infection are shown in Figure 2 and Table 1 .…”

Green Tea Polyphenols Upregulate the Nrf2 Signaling Pathway and Suppress Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Markers in D-Galactose-Induced Liver Aging in Mice

“…Aging-related liver diseases mainly include alterations of hepatic structure and function, where the increase of liver volume and decrease of hepatic blood flow and perfusion occur. These changes increase the liver fibrosis, hepatocarcinoma, and mortality rate of susceptible elderly people and can thus be considered adverse prognostic factors (3)(4)(5). At the cellular level, the disturbances of proteostasis by protein oxidation aggregates trigger reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammatory cytokines production (6,7).…”