Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 21, 2024; 30(7): 728-741
Published online Feb 21, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i7.728
Milk fat globule epidermal growth factor 8 alleviates liver injury in severe acute pancreatitis by restoring autophagy flux and inhibiting ferroptosis in hepatocytes
Qing Cui, Hang-Cheng Liu, Wu-Ming Liu, Feng Ma, Yi Lv, Jian-Cang Ma, Rong-Qian Wu, Yi-Fan Ren
Qing Cui, Feng Ma, Department of Cardiology, Xi’an Central Hospital Affiliated to Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710003, Shaanxi Province, China
Hang-Cheng Liu, Yi-Fan Ren, Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China
Wu-Ming Liu, Yi Lv, Rong-Qian Wu, Yi-Fan Ren, National Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Precision Surgery & Regenerative Medicine, Shaanxi Provincial Center for Regenerative Medicine and Surgical Engineering, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Wu-Ming Liu, Yi Lv, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, Shaanxi Province, China
Jian-Cang Ma, Department of Vascular Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China
Co-first authors: Qing Cui and Hang-Cheng Liu.
Author contributions: Cui Q, Liu HC, and Liu WM acquired and analyzed the data, wrote the paper; Ma F, Lv Y, Ma JC, and Wu RQ interpreted the data; Lv Y, Wu RQ, and Ren YF revised the paper; Ren YF designed and supervised the study; and all authors approved the final version of the article.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82100685; the Scientific Research Fund of Xi’an Health Commission, No. 2021yb08; Scientific Research Fund of Xi’an Central Hospital, No. 2022QN07; and Innovation Capability Support Plan of Xi’an Science and Technology Bureau, No. 23YXYJ0097.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Health Science Center of the Xi’an Jiaotong University Approval for Research Involving Animals (No. XJTUAE2023-2254).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article 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 NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yi-Fan Ren, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Surgeon, Department of General Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 157 West Fifth Road, Xi’an 710004, Shaanxi Province, China. 871396704@qq.com
Received: October 21, 2023
Peer-review started: October 21, 2023
First decision: December 5, 2023
Revised: December 18, 2023
Accepted: January 15, 2024
Article in press: January 15, 2024
Published online: February 21, 2024
Processing time: 123 Days and 3.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Serum milk fat globule epidermal growth factor 8 (MFG-E8) concentration is negatively correlated with inflammatory severity in acute pancreatitis (AP) patients. Deficiency of MFG-E8 would aggravate the hepatic inflammatory response, and exacerbates the imbalance of liver autophagy flux caused by AP. Eventually leading to ferroptosis. Recombinant MFG-E8 administration restored autophagy flux, reduced ferroptosis and alleviated liver injury in AP in a dose-dependent manner. MFG-E8 alleviates the excessive autophagy and inhibits ferroptosis in hepatocytes possibly by binding to integrin αVβ3/5.