Basic Study
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World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2025; 17(3): 101340
Published online Mar 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i3.101340
Dysregulation of bile acid signal transduction causes neurological dysfunction in cirrhosis rats
Chao Ren, Li Cha, Shu-Yue Huang, Guo-Hui Bai, Jin-Hui Li, Xin Xiong, Yu-Xing Feng, Dui-Ping Feng, Long Gao, Jin-Yu Li
Chao Ren, Li Cha, Guo-Hui Bai, Jin-Hui Li, College of Medical Imaging, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China
Shu-Yue Huang, Department of Ultrasound, Qingdao Central Hospital, University of Health and Rehabilitation, Qingdao 266000, Shandong Province, China
Xin Xiong, Academy of Medical Sciences, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China
Yu-Xing Feng, Department of Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China
Dui-Ping Feng, Long Gao, Jin-Yu Li, Department of Oncological and Vascular Intervention, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China
Co-corresponding authors: Dui-Ping Feng and Long Gao.
Author contributions: Feng DP and Gao L co-supervised the manuscript, and they made equal contributions to the study conception and design, data analysis, manuscript writing, critical revision of the manuscript. All authors acknowledge their corresponding authorship. Ren C, Gao L, and Feng DP contributed to study conception and design; Bai GH, Li JH, Xiong X, and Feng DP contributed to data acquisition; Huang SY, Bai GH, Xiong X, Feng YX, Feng DP, and Li JY contributed to analysis and interpretation of data; Ren C, Feng DP, and Gao L contributed to manuscript writing, critical revision of the manuscript, and statistical analysis; and all authors vouch for the veracity and completeness of the data and analyses presented. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82200650; the Key Research and Development Projects of Shanxi Province, No. 202102130501014; and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province, No. 202203021211021, No. 202203021212046, and No. 20210302123258.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study and included experimental procedures were approved by the institutional animal care and use committee of First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University (approval No. DWYJ-2023-016). All animal housing and experiments were conducted in strict accordance with the institutional guidelines for care and use of laboratory animals.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.
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: Long Gao, PhD, Researcher, Department of Oncological and Vascular Intervention, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, No. 56 Xinjian South Road, Yingze District, Taiyuan 030001, Shanxi Province, China. gaolong@sxmu.edu.cn
Received: September 12, 2024
Revised: January 19, 2025
Accepted: February 21, 2025
Published online: March 27, 2025
Processing time: 195 Days and 1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: There are many pathogenic factors for hepatic encephalopathy (HE). This experiment confirmed that total bile acids contribute to the development of HE in liver cirrhosis. The main mechanism is that bile acids mediate the expression of bile acid Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 in the brain and then affect microglia activation. However, this experiment only verified the role of total bile acids in HE, but there are many types of bile acids, and we still need to continue to explore in depth which bile acids play and what role they play. In short, bile acids and Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 in the brain may become effective targets for treating HE in the future.