Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Oct 27, 2018; 10(10): 662-669
Published online Oct 27, 2018. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i10.662
Complements are involved in alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatitis and fibrosis
Cheng-Jie Lin, Zhi-Gao Hu, Guan-Dou Yuan, Biao Lei, Song-Qing He
Cheng-Jie Lin, Zhi-Gao Hu, Guan-Dou Yuan, Biao Lei, Song-Qing He, Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Lin CJ and Hu ZG contributed equally to this work; He SQ designed research; Lin CJ, Hu ZG and Yuan GD searched the relevant literatures; and Lin CJ wrote the review; Lei B and He SQ revised the review.
Supported by State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 8143000311; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81660103 and No. 81771674; 111 Project, No. D17011; Guangxi BaGui Scholars; the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province, No. 2015GXNSFFA139004.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which 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/
Correspondence to: Song-Qing He, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Research Professor, Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, 6 Shuangyong Road, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. dr_hesongqing@163.com
Telephone: +86-771-5356568
Received: April 10, 2018
Peer-review started: April 10, 2018
First decision: May 17, 2018
Revised: July 26, 2018
Accepted: August 1, 2018
Article in press: August 1, 2018
Published online: October 27, 2018
Abstract

The complement system is a key component of the body’s immune system. When abnormally activated, this system can induce inflammation and damage to normal tissues and participate in the development and progression of a variety of diseases. In the past, many scholars believed that alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is induced by the stress of ethanol on liver cells, including oxidative stress and dysfunction of mitochondria and protease bodies, causing hepatocyte injury and apoptosis. Recent studies have shown that complement activation is also involved in the genesis and development of ALD. This review focuses on the roles of complement activation in ALD and of therapeutic intervention in complement-activation pathways. We intend to provide new ideas on the diagnosis and treatment of ALD.

Keywords: Alcoholic liver disease, Complement system proteins, Complement regulator, Liver cells, Hepatocyte injury

Core tip: In this review, we cited evidence that the complement system is involved in the pathogenesis of each stage of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) that include fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and fibrosis/cirrhosis, and we also summarized the complement regulation in ALD. We intend to provide new ideas on the treatment of ALD.