Progress of signal transduction pathway in cholestatic hepatic fibrosis

Abstract

Hepatic fibrosis is a damage and repair response model in chronic liver damage process.Hepatic stellate cells(HSC)play a determinant role as the main cells to produce liver extracellular matrix in the process of liver fibrosis, the activation and proliferation of HSC is the key link in liver fibrosis.Cholestasis is refers to the disorder in generation, secretion and flow of bile at the hepatocyte or bile duct level.The proteins exist in membranes of the liver cells and bile duct cells are important transporters to produce and secrete bile.In recent years, much progress have been made in signal transduction pathways of liver fibrosis, and the relevant research of cholestatic liver fibrosis is increasingly improvement, with the in-depth understanding of these transporters, complex signal network system of bile salt's synthesis and transport, this paper mainly through TGF-β/Smad, MAPK, JAK/STAT, NF- κ B and Wnt signal pathways to investigate the progress of signal transduction mechanism of cholestatic hepatic fibrosis. Key words: Cholestatic hepatic fibrosis; Signal transduction; TGFβ/Smad; MAPK; JAK/STAT; NF-κB; Wnt