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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

Optimized Analysis of In Vivo and In Vitro Hepatic Steatosis
Published on: March 11, 2017
Long noncoding RNA MALAT1 promotes hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance by increasing nuclear SREBP-1c protein
Caifeng Yan1, Jinfeng Chen2, Nuoqi Chen3
1Department of Endocrinology, Clinical Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is implicated in liver cell proliferation. However, its role in hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of MALAT1 on hepatic lipid accumulation and its potential targets. As expected, MALAT1 expression is increased in hepatocytes exposed to palmitate and livers of ob/ob mice. Knockdown of MALAT1 expression dramatically suppressed palmitate-induced lipid accumulation and the increase of nuclear SREBP-1c protein in HepG2 cells. In addition, RNA immunoprecipitation and RNA pull-down assay confirmed that MALAT1 interacted with SREBP-1c to stabilize nuclear SREBP-1c protein. Finally, injection of si-MALAT1 prevented hepatic lipid accumulation and insulin resistance in ob/ob mice. In conclusion, our observations suggest that MALAT1 promotes hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance by increasing nuclear SREBP-1c protein stability.
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