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Updated: Apr 19, 2026

Optimized Analysis of In Vivo and In Vitro Hepatic Steatosis
Published on: March 11, 2017
Hepatic IFRD1 suppresses metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease via GLUD1/α-KG axis
Mengya Geng1, Fanzheng Meng2, Hairui Li2
1Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, China; School of Clinical Medicine, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu 241002, China; Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Metabolic Health and Panvascular Diseases, Hefei 230001, China.
Abstract:
The mechanisms underlying metabolic remodeling in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) remain unclear. Targeting the process of de novo lipogenesis (DNL) in the liver has the potential to mitigate MASLD. Here we show that interferon-related developmental regulator 1 (IFRD1) expression negatively correlates with MASLD/metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) progression in human liver tissues. In multiple mouse models, Ifrd1-/- mice exhibit an exacerbated MASLD phenotype, while hepatocyte-specific IFRD1 expression suppresses MASH progression. Mechanistically, IFRD1 promotes GLUD1's mitochondrial localization via direct interaction, stabilizing the enzyme's activity to enhance α-ketoglutarate (α-KG) production. α-KG reduces H3K36me3 level at lipogenic genes, thereby inhibiting DNL and ameliorating MASH. α-KG supplementation reverses MASH exacerbation in Ifrd1-CKO mice. Collectively, our research establishes the IFRD1-GLUD1-α-KG axis as a critical metabolic-epigenetic regulatory hub, providing novel targets for inhibiting hepatic DNL and developing therapeutic agents for MASLD/MASH.
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