Combination effects of airborne particulate matter exposure and high-fat diet on hepatic fibrosis through regulating the ROS-endoplasmic reticulum stress-TGFβ/SMADs axis in mice.

Background: Hepatic fibrosis, characterized by an excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix, is associated with toxic substance exposure, chronic infections, mechanical injury, airborne fine particulate matter (PM) exposure and metabolic disease. This study aimed to investigate the effect and mechanism of long-term, real-world airborne particulate matter (PM) exposure on hepatic fibrosis and further explored whether combination treatment of PM exposure and high-fat diet (HFD) aggravate the adverse effects in mice.

Methods And Results: Six-week-old male C57BL/6J mice fed with either a standard chow diet (STD) or an HFD were treated with either filtered air (FA) or PM for 18 weeks.