Glucose, lipid and protein metabolism of hepatic stellate cells: a novel target against liver fibrosis / 中国药理学通报

Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are non-parenchymal pericytes resided in liver. In chronic liver injury, the cells are activated from quiescent state into myofibroblasts, and then drive liver fibrosis. The process, activated HSCs secreting extracellular matrix, is crucial to liver fibrosis, which needs enormous energy and triggers the metabolic reprogramming including Warburg effect, degradation of lipid droplets with increasing lipid metabolism and the change of amino acid metabolism. This paper mainly reviews the glucose, lipid and protein metabolic reprogramming of HSCs during the development of liver fibrosis and its potential applications, controbuting to design novel targeted therapies against liver fibrosis.