Comparative Lipidomics and Metabolomics Reveal the Underlying Mechanisms of Taurine in the Alleviation of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Using the Aged Laying Hen Model.

Scope: Aged laying hen is recently suggested as a more attractive animal model than rodent for studying nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) of humans. This study aims to reveal effects and metabolic regulation mechanisms of taurine alleviating NAFLD by using the aged laying hen model.

Methods And Results: Liver histomorphology and biochemical indices show 0.02% taurine effectively alleviated fat deposition and liver damage. Comparative liver lipidomics and gene expressions analyses reveal taurine promoted lipolysis, fatty acids oxidation, lipids transport, and reduced oxidative stress in liver. Furthermore, comparative serum metabolomics screen six core metabolites negatively correlated with NAFLD, including linoleic acid, gamma-linolenic acid, pantothenate, L-methionine, 2-methylbutyroylcarnitine, L-carnitine; and two core metabolites positively correlated with NAFLD, including lysophosphatidylcholine (14:0/0:0) and lysophosphatidylcholine (16:0/0:0). Metabolic pathway analysis reveals taurine mainly regulated linoleic acid metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, carnitine metabolism, pantothenic acid and coenzyme A biosynthesis metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism to up-adjust levels of six negatively correlated metabolites and down-adjust two positively correlated metabolites for alleviating NAFLD of aged hens.

Conclusion: This study firstly reveals underlying metabolic mechanisms of taurine alleviating NAFLD using the aged hen model, thereby laying the foundation for taurine's application in the prevention of NAFLD in both human and poultry.