Autophagy is involved in acetylshikonin ameliorating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis through AMPK/mTOR pathway

Acetylshikonin (AS), a naphthoquinone constituent derived from Lithospermum erythrorhizon, has been revealed various pharmacological activities including anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and antifertility effects. Our previous study has illuminated the effects of AS on preventing obesity and hepatic steatosis in db/db mice. However, the effects of AS and the molecular mechanisms for curing non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) have not yet been studied. Autophagy has been considered as a lysosomal degradative pathway responsible for the removal of cellular lipid droplets through a process called lipophagy, which is recognized as a potential therapeutic approach for NASH. Here we hypothesize that autophagy is involved in the beneficial effects of AS on methionine-choline deficient (MCD) diet-induced NASH of mice. In this study, we observed that AS treatment ameliorated the pathological signs of NASH, and markedly suppressed the levels of hepatic IL-1β and TNF-α cytokines, and hepatocyte apoptotic cells in MCD diet-induced mice. Moreover, immunological analyses showed that the elevated expression of the fibrotic markers including α-SMA, collegen I, collegen III and fibronectin in MCD diet-induced mice were notably down-regulated by AS treatment. Nevertheless, the beneficial effects of AS on ameliorating NASH were notably counteracted by co-administration of chloroquine, an autophagy inhibitor. Furthermore, our data suggested that AS treatment increased hepatocyte autophagy in MCD diet-induced mice via AMPK/mTOR pathway. These findings suggest that AS could be therapeutically effective in the development of NASH by ameliorating steatosis, inflammation, liver injury and fibrosis.