Therapeutic effect of liraglutide on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease rats and its influence on the expression of FGF21 / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the therapeutic effect of liraglutide on rat models with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its influence on the expression of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21).Methods:Thirty five Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into normal control group (15 rats) and control group (20 rats). They were fed with normal diet and high fat diet respectively. The NAFLD rat model was established by feeding the model group for 12 weeks. After successful modeling, the model group was randomly divided into liraglutide group and model group. 600 μg/(kg·d) liraglutide and equal volume normal saline were injected intraperitoneally respectively. All rats were killed at the 16th week. Serum FGF21, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) were measured; Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the pathological changes of rat liver tissue, and real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of FGF21 mRNA in rat liver tissue.Results:The liver index and serum ALT, AST, TC and TG contents in model group were significantly higher than those in normal control group (all P<0.05). The above indexes in liraglutide group were significantly lower than those in model group (all P<0.05). There was no significant difference in serum FBG level among the three groups ( P>0.05). HE staining showed that there were no abnormal pathological changes in liver of normal control group. Steatosis and inflammatory cell infiltration occurred in liver cells of model group. Compared with model group, liver steatosis and inflammatory cell infiltration in liraglutide group were significantly reduced. The level of FGF21 in serum and mRNA expression of FGF21 in liver tissue in model group were significantly higher than those in normal control group ( P<0.05). The levels of FGF21 in serum and FGF21 mRNA in liver tissue in liraglutide group were lower than those in model group ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Liraglutide can effectively delay the development of NAFLD in rats, and its mechanism may be related to the regulation of the expression of FGF21.