Abstract:

Objective   To study the mechanism of hepatic steatosis induced by ethanol. Methods   Primarily cultured hepatocytes obtained from KM mouse at the 5th day were divided into two groups: the primarily cultured liver cells and the purified hepatocytes. Each group was divided into the control group and the experiment groups(50, 100, 200, 300 and 400mmol/L of ethanol).The hepatic steatosis degrees were evaluated by morphological changes and the oil red Ostaining. The changes of PPARα, PPARγ, TNF-α and IL-6 at mRNA level were tested with RT-PCR technique. Results   The primarily cultured liver cells underwent hepatic steatosis after the ethanol treatment, and the expressions of PPARγ, TNF-α and IL-6 at mRNA level improved obviously. Conclusion   Purified hepatocytes lose the ability to trans differentiate into fat cells. It is possible that the transdiferentiation of hepatocytes into fat cells is due to the ability of non-hepatocytes to provide some factors including immune factors upon ethanol stimulation.

Key words: Fatty liver， alcoholic; Hepatocytes； Steatosis; Transdiferentiation； Merchanism