Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2019; 25(30): 4222-4234
Published online Aug 14, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i30.4222
Bone morphogenetic protein-7 represses hepatic stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis via regulation of TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway
Gao-Liang Zou, Shi Zuo, Shuang Lu, Rui-Han Hu, Yin-Ying Lu, Jing Yang, Kai-Sheng Deng, Ye-Ting Wu, Mao Mu, Juan-Juan Zhu, Jing-Zhang Zeng, Bao-Fang Zhang, Xian Wu, Xue-Ke Zhao, Hai-Yang Li
Gao-Liang Zou, Shuang Lu, Rui-Han Hu, Jing Yang, Kai-Sheng Deng, Ye-Ting Wu, Mao Mu, Juan-Juan Zhu, Jing-Zhang Zeng, Bao-Fang Zhang, Xian Wu, Xue-Ke Zhao, Department of Infectious Diseases, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou Province, China
Shi Zuo, Hai-Yang Li, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou Province, China
Yin-Ying Lu, Comprehensive Liver Cancer Center, 302 Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
Author contributions: Zhao XK and Li HY designed the study; Zou GL, Zuo S, and Lu S carried out most of the experiments and wrote the article; all authors contributed to the design and interpretation of the study; Zou GL, Zuo S, and Lu S contributed equally to this work.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81560104 and No. 81860115.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines and prepared the manuscript accordingly.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xue-Ke Zhao, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, No. 28, Guiyi Road, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou Province, China. zhaoxueke1@163.com
Telephone: +86-851-86773914 Fax: +86-851-86741623
Received: April 16, 2019
Peer-review started: April 16, 2019
First decision: June 10, 2019
Revised: June 25, 2019
Accepted: July 5, 2019
Article in press: July 5, 2019
Published online: August 14, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Liver fibrosis is the repair response of the liver to chronic injury. Its long-term persistence can eventually progress into cirrhosis or even liver cancer. Many cytokines and signaling pathways participate in the development and progression of liver fibrosis. The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily member bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) is reported to have anti-fibrosis functions. This study observed changes in the dynamic expression of BMP7 during liver fibrosis, explored the relationship between BMP7 and TGF-β1, and further investigated the possible mechanism underlying the anti-liver fibrosis function of exogenous BMP7 using in vivo and in vitro experiments. This study demonstrated the prospect of exogenous BMP7 application as a potential anti-liver fibrosis drug.