Potential Regulators Driving the Transition in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: a Stage-Based View

The incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), ranging from mild steatosis to hepatocellular injury and inflammation, increases with the rise of obesity. However, the implications of transcription factors network in progressive NAFLD remain to be determined.

A co-regulatory network approach by combining gene expression and transcription influence was utilized to dissect transcriptional regulators in different NAFLD stages. In vivo, mice models of NAFLD were used to investigate whether dysregulated expression be undertaken by transcriptional regulators.

Through constructing a large-scale co-regulatory network, sample-specific regulator activity was estimated. The combinations of active regulators that drive the progression of NAFLD were identified. Next, top regulators in each stage of NAFLD were determined, and the results were validated using the different experiments and bariatric surgical samples. In particular, Adipocyte enhancer-binding protein 1 (AEBP1) showed increased transcription activity in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Further characterization of the AEBP1 related transcription program defined its co-regulators, targeted genes, and functional organization. The dynamics of AEBP1 and its potential targets were verified in an animal model of NAFLD.

This study identifies putative functions for several transcription factors in the pathogenesis of NAFLD and may thus point to potential targets for therapeutic interventions.