Ultrastructure of the liver microcirculation influences hepatic and systemic insulin activity and provides a mechanism for age-related insulin resistance.

While age-related insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are usually considered to be secondary to changes in muscle, the liver also plays a key role in whole-body insulin handling and its role in age-related changes in insulin homeostasis is largely unknown. Here, we show that patent pores called 'fenestrations' are essential for insulin transfer across the liver sinusoidal endothelium and that age-related loss of fenestrations causes an impaired insulin clearance and hyperinsulinemia, induces hepatic insulin resistance, impairs hepatic insulin signaling, and deranges glucose homeostasis. To further define the role of fenestrations in hepatic insulin signaling without any of the long-term adaptive responses that occur with aging, we induced acute defenestration using poloxamer 407 (P407), and this replicated many of the age-related changes in hepatic glucose and insulin handling. Loss of fenestrations in the liver sinusoidal endothelium is a hallmark of aging that has previously been shown to cause deficits in hepatic drug and lipoprotein metabolism and now insulin. Liver defenestration thus provides a new mechanism that potentially contributes to age-related insulin resistance.

Dietary macronutrients and the aging liver sinusoidal endothelial cell.

Fenestrations are pores within the liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) that line the sinusoids of the highly vascularized liver. Fenestrations facilitate the transfer of substrates between blood and hepatocytes. With pseudocapillarization of the hepatic sinusoid in old age, there is a loss of fenestrations. LSECs are uniquely exposed to gut-derived dietary and microbial substrates delivered by the portal circulation to the liver. Here we studied the effect of 25 diets varying in content of macronutrients and energy on LSEC fenestrations using the Geometric Framework method in a large cohort of mice aged 15 mo. Macronutrient distribution rather than total food or energy intake was associated with changes in fenestrations. Porosity and frequency were inversely associated with dietary fat intake, while fenestration diameter was inversely associated with protein or carbohydrate intake. Fenestrations were also linked to diet-induced changes in gut microbiome, with increased fenestrations associated with higher abundance of Firmicutes and reduced abundance of Bacteroidetes Diet-induced changes in levels of several fatty acids (C16:0, C19:0, and C20:4) were also significantly inversely associated with fenestrations, suggesting a link between dietary fat and modulation of lipid rafts in the LSECs. Diet influences fenestrations and these data reflect both the key role of the LSECs in clearing gut-derived molecules from the vascular circulation and the impact these molecules have on LSEC morphology.

Validity of the 13C-caffeine breath test as a noninvasive, quantitative test of liver function.

The properties of caffeine render it an ideal substrate for a quantitative test of liver function. The aim of this study was to determine whether the caffeine breath test (CBT) using orally administered 13C-caffeine correlates reliably with plasma caffeine clearance and reflects varying degrees of liver dysfunction. The CBT was performed in 25 healthy controls; 20 subjects with noncirrhotic, chronic hepatitis B or C; and 20 subjects with cirrhosis. Plasma caffeine clearance was assayed simultaneously with the CBT in a cohort of these subjects. Over a broad range of caffeine clearances, the CBT exhibited a highly significant correlation with plasma clearance (r = 0.85, P <.001). Cirrhotic patients were characterized by significantly reduced CBT values (1.15 +/- 0.75 delta per thousand mg(-1)) compared with controls (2.23 +/- 0.76; P =.001) and hepatitic patients (1.83 +/- 1.05; P =.04). There was a significant inverse relationship between the CBT and Child-Pugh score (r = -.74, P =.002). The intraclass correlation coefficient between repeated CBTs in 20 subjects with normal and cirrhotic livers was 0.89. Although smoking was associated with an 86% to 141% increase in CBT in all groups, the CBT was able to distinguish control, hepatitic, and cirrhotic smokers (5.36 +/- 0.82, 3.63 +/- 1.21, and 2.14 +/- 1.14, respectively, P =.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that only smoking (P <.001) and disease state (P =.001) were significant predictors of the CBT. In conclusion, the 13C-CBT represents a valid indicator of plasma caffeine clearance and correlates reproducibly with hepatic dysfunction.