Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and their involvement in liver disease

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a heterogeneous group of molecules, formed in vivo both by non-oxidative and oxidative reactions of sugars and their adducts to proteins and lipids. It is now well established that formation and accumulation of AGEs progress during normal aging, and at an extremely accelerated rate under diabetes, thus being implicated in various types of AGEs-related disorders such as diabetic vascular complications, neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. There is a growing body of evidence that activation of RAGE (receptor for AGEs) system is also implicated in these devastating disorders. Indeed, the engagement of RAGE with AGEs is shown to elicit oxidative stress generation and subsequently evoke inflammatory responses in various types of cells including hepatocytes and hepatic stellate cells. Liver is not only a target organ, but also an important site for clearance and catabolism of circulating AGEs. Although there are several papers to suggest the involvement of AGEs-RAGE system in various types of liver diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, liver cirrhosis and cancers, as far as we know, there are few comprehensive reviews to deal with this issue. Therefore, in this paper, we shortly review the pathological role of AGEs and RAGE in various liver diseases.