Estrogen cholestasis induces gut and liver injury in rats involving in activating PI3K/Akt and MAPK signaling pathways.

Life Sci

Department of Pharmacy, Tongji Hospital Affiliated with Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China. Electronic address:

Published: July 2021

Backgrounds: Estrogen and its metabolites often lead to intrahepatic cholestasis in susceptible women with pregnancy, administration of oral contraceptives and postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy. Recently, dysfunction of the gut-liver axis has been suggested to play a pivotal role in the progression of cholestasis, but details about estrogen cholestasis (EC)-induced gut and liver injury are still largely unknown. This study aims to gain insight into EC-induced gut and liver injury and cell signaling implicated.

Methods: Male rats were exposed to 5 and 10 mg/kg of 17α-ethinylestradiol via subcutaneous injection for 5 successive days to simulate human EC.

Results: By detection of these estrogen cholestatic rats, we found that EC induced inflammation in the liver but not in the intestine through activating NF-κB signaling pathway. EC strongly induced oxidative stress in both the liver and intestine, and activated the hepatic Nrf2/Gclm/Gclc pathway and the intestinal Nrf2/Ho-1 pathway, respectively, for adaptively regulating oxidative stress. EC increased cell apoptosis in both the liver and intestine. Additionally, EC elevated phosphorylation of Akt, ERK1/2, and p38 in the liver and increased phosphorylation of p38 in the intestine.

Conclusions: EC induces liver inflammation, both gut and liver oxidative stress and apoptosis, involving in activating PI3K/Akt and MAPK signaling pathways. Investigation of EC-induced gut and liver injury contributes to the development of new potential therapeutic strategies.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119367DOI Listing

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