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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2019; 7(6): 691-704
Published online Mar 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i6.691
Effects of apoptosis on liver aging
Shao-Jie Hu, Sha-Sha Jiang, Jin Zhang, Dan Luo, Bo Yu, Liang-Yan Yang, Hua-Hua Zhong, Mei-Wen Yang, Li-Yu Liu, Fen-Fang Hong, Shu-Long Yang
Shao-Jie Hu, Sha-Sha Jiang, Jin Zhang, Dan Luo, Bo Yu, Liang-Yan Yang, Hua-Hua Zhong, Shu-Long Yang, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
Mei-Wen Yang, Li-Yu Liu, Department of Nurse, Nanchang University Hospital, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China
Fen-Fang Hong, Experimental Teaching Center, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, Jiangxi Province, China
Author contributions: Hu SJ, Jiang SS, Zhang J, Luo D, Yu B, Yang LY, and Zhong HH wrote and revised the paper together; Yang MW contributed to data collection and paper revision; Liu LY, Hong FF and Yang SL are co-corresponding authors who contributed equally to this work and were responsible for the idea, funding, and the paper revision.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81660151, No. 81660751, and No. 81260504; the Science Foundation of the Science Commission of Jiangxi Province in China, No. 20161BBG70067; and Jiangxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 20171BAB205085.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest in this work.
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/
Corresponding author: Shu-long Yang, Professor, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China; slyang@ncu.edu.cn
Telephone: +86-13576291532
Received: November 22, 2018
Peer-review started: November 26, 2018
First decision: December 12, 2018
Revised: January 10, 2019
Accepted: January 26, 2019
Article in press: January 26, 2019
Published online: March 26, 2019
Processing time: 124 Days and 21.8 Hours
Abstract

As an irreversible and perennial process, aging is accompanied by functional and morphological declines in organs. Generally, aging liver exhibits a decline in volume and hepatic blood flow. Even with a preeminent regenerative capacity to restore its functions after liver cell loss, its biosynthesis and metabolism abilities decline, and these are difficult to restore to previous standards. Apoptosis is a programmed death process via intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, in which Bcl-2 family proteins and apoptosis-related genes, such as p21 and p53, are involved. Apoptosis inflicts both favorable and adverse influences on liver aging. Apoptosis eliminates transformed abnormal cells but promotes age-related liver diseases, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. We summarize the roles of apoptosis in liver aging and age-related liver diseases.

Keywords: Apoptosis; Liver aging; Oxidative stress; Caloric restriction; Cirrhosis

Core tip: Aging liver exhibits functional and morphological changes. Apoptosis eliminates transformed abnormal cells but promotes age-related liver diseases, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. Apoptosis including intrinsic and extrinsic pathways has protective and deleterious effects on liver aging. The occurrence, development, and treatment of age-related liver diseases correlate highly with liver aging and apoptosis. This paper elaborates the effects of apoptosis on liver aging.