Albumin Might Attenuate Bacteria-Induced Damage on Kupffer Cells for Patients with Chronic Liver Disease.

Hao Lin,Yuhui Fan,Julia Mayerle,Ivonne Regel,Hanno Nieß,Christian J Steib,Alexander L Gerbes,Jiang Zhang,Andreas Wieser

doi:10.3390/cells10092298

Abstract

Chronic liver diseases (CLDs) are complex diseases that cause long-term inflammation and infection, which in turn accelerate their development. The usage of albumin in patients with CLDs has been debated for years. Human serum albumin (HSA) plays a key role in immunomodulation during the process of CLDs. The correlation between albumin and C-reactive protein (CRP) in CLD patients was analyzed by linear regression with the Pearson statistic. The damage of THP-1 and primary cells was evaluated by measuring the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the supernatant. Immunofluorescence staining was performed to determine underlying pathways in Kupffer cells (KCs). Albumin negatively correlated with infection in patients with CLDs. In vitro experiments with THP-1 cells and KCs showed that albumin reduced LDH release after stimulation with bacterial products, while no differences in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and sinusoidal endothelial cells (SECs) were detected. Moreover, immunofluorescence staining revealed an increase of p-ERK and p-NF-kB p65 density after albumin treatment of KCs stimulated by bacterial products. In conclusion, albumin could assist CLD patients in alleviating inflammation caused by bacterial products and might be beneficial to patients with CLDs by securing KCs from bacteria-induced damage, providing a compelling rationale for albumin therapy in patients with CLDs.

Highlights

Chronic liver diseases (CLDs) are a long-term pathological process involving continuous destruction and regeneration of liver parenchyma that leads to cirrhosis at its most advanced stage
The levels of NaCl, KCl and Zinc positively correlated with albumin levels in patients with CLDs while bilirubin, GOT, Gamma-GT, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), international normalized ratio (INR), and creatinine had a negative correlation with albumin levels (Table 3 and Figure S1)
The results showed that albumin intensifies the staining density of p-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and p-NF-kB compared to the control group and E. coli group in Kupffer cells (KCs) (Figure 4)

Summary

Introduction

Chronic liver diseases (CLDs) are a long-term pathological process involving continuous destruction and regeneration of liver parenchyma that leads to cirrhosis at its most advanced stage. The mechanism of the progression of CLDs is complicated and remains unsettled, but unceasing inflammation and bacterial infections may play an important role in this process [1,2]. Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is one of the most common infections during CLDs [3]. Kupffer cells (KCs) are resident liver macrophages as well as the largest population of innate immune cells in the liver [5]. KCs play an essential role in maintaining the homeostasis to protect the host and in prompting immunogenic and tolerogenic immune responses

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Conclusion