Fujimoto Y, Kaji K, Nishimura N, Enomoto M, Murata K, Takeda S, Takaya H, Kawaratani H, Moriya K, Namisaki T, Akahane T, Yoshiji H. Dual therapy with zinc acetate and rifaximin prevents from ethanol-induced liver fibrosis by maintaining intestinal barrier integrity. World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(48): 8323-8342 [PMID: 35068872 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i48.8323]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Kosuke Kaji, MD, PhD, Doctor, Lecturer, Senior Researcher, Department of Gastroenterology, Nara Medical University, 840, Shijo-cho, Kashihara 6348521, Nara, Japan. kajik@naramed-u.ac.jp
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Basic Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
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/
Yuki Fujimoto, Kosuke Kaji, Norihisa Nishimura, Masahide Enomoto, Koji Murata, Soichi Takeda, Hiroaki Takaya, Hideto Kawaratani, Kei Moriya, Tadashi Namisaki, Takemi Akahane, Hitoshi Yoshiji, Department of Gastroenterology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara 6348521, Nara, Japan
Author contributions: Fujimoto Y and Kaji K designed the research study; Fujimoto Y, Kaji K, Nishimura N, Enomoto M, Murata K, Takeda S, Takaya H and Kawaratani H performed the research; Moriya K, Namisaki T and Akahane T offered new reagents, analytic tools and material support; Fujimoto Y and Kaji K analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Yoshiji H supervised this study; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional review board of Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan (authorization numbers: 12734).
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are 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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kosuke Kaji, MD, PhD, Doctor, Lecturer, Senior Researcher, Department of Gastroenterology, Nara Medical University, 840, Shijo-cho, Kashihara 6348521, Nara, Japan. kajik@naramed-u.ac.jp
Received: July 6, 2021 Peer-review started: July 6, 2021 First decision: July 26, 2021 Revised: July 6, 2021 Accepted: December 10, 2021 Article in press: December 22, 2021 Published online: December 28, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: Gut-derived lipopolysaccharide dictates the progression of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) hence the maintenance of intestinal barrier integrity has attracted attention for the treatment of ALD. This study elucidates the preventive effect of combined zinc supplementation and rifaximin from ALD-related liver fibrosis induced by ethanol plus carbon tetrachloride in mice. This effect is involved in the multifaceted regulatory functions that maintain intestinal barrier integrity and reduce hepatic lipopolysaccharide exposure, thereby, leading to Kupffer cell expansion and hepatic stellate cell activation by inhibiting the toll-like receptor 4 pathway, highlighting that this regimen may represent a potential novel strategy against ALD-related liver fibrosis.
