Analysis of Liver Responses to Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis by mRNA-Sequencing

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a major cause of chronic liver disease that can ultimately lead to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Although NASH is associated with excessive liver lipid accumulation, hepatocyte injury, inflammation, and fibrosis, its etiology remains incompletely understood. These can be characterized by determining transcriptional changes in specific genes previously found to be involved in these processes. As an inherently multifaceted disease, studies of NASH often require unbiased examination of major genes and pathways to identify the mechanisms involved in this disorder. To address this need, quantitative approaches such as mRNA-sequencing have been developed for the global assessment of gene expression. Here, we describe a protocol for bulk mRNA-sequencing that can be utilized for both liver samples and specific cell types isolated from the liver. This approach provides an important resource to further understand the molecular changes that occur during the development of NASH that can be utilized to design better therapeutic treatments.