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Volume 41 Issue 7
Jul.  2025
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Article Navigation >  Journal of Clinical Hepatology  > 2025  >  41(7): 1327-1336

Efficacy and mechanism of epigallocatechin-3-gallate in treatment of experimental metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis

DOI: 10.12449/JCH250716
  • 1.

    Institute of Liver Diseases

  • 2.

    Science and Technology Experimental Center，Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine，Shanghai 201203，China

  • 3.

    Shanghai Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Clinical Medicine，Shanghai 201203，China

  • 4.

    Key Laboratory of Liver and Kidney Diseases，Ministry of Education，Shanghai 201203，China

Research funding:

General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (82174040);

Shanghai Sailing Program (23YF1448200);

SIMM-SHUTCM Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Joint Research Program (2022);

SIMM-SHUTCM Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Joint Research Program (E2G807H)

More Information
  • Corresponding author: XIN Xin， xinxinliver@shutcm.edu.cn （ORCID： 0000-0003-4899-9127）; FENG Qin， fengqin@shutcm.edu.cn （ORCID： 0000-0002-4641-1636）
  • Received Date: 2024-10-15
  • Accepted Date: 2024-12-02
  • Published Date: 2025-07-25
    Abstract
  •   Objective  To investigate the effect and mechanism of action of epigallocatechin-3-gallate （EGCG） in the treatment of experimental metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis （MASH）， and to provide a basis for clinical development and application.  Methods  A total of 32 experimental C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into normal diet group （Con group with 8 mice） and model group with 24 mice. The mice in the model group were given a high-trans fatty acid high-carbohydrate （HFHC） diet for 24 weeks to establish a model of MASH， and at the end of week 24， the mice in the model group were further divided into HFHC group， EGCG treatment group （100 mg·kg-1·d-1）， and obeticholic acid treatment group （10 mg·kg-1·d-1）， with 8 mice in each group. After 6 weeks of treatment， samples were collected to observe the general conditions of mice； the content of triglycerides （TG） and hydroxyproline in liver tissue and the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase （ALT） and aspartate aminotransferase （AST） were measured； HE staining， oil red O staining， and picrosirius red staining were used to observe liver histopathological changes. In the in vitro experiment， L02 cells were induced with free fatty acid （FFA） to establish a model of lipid deposition， and the cells were divided into Con group， FFA group， and EGCG group. The content of TG in cells was measured， as well as the results of oil red O staining and the relative mRNA expression levels of TNF-‍α， CCL2， and CXCL10. The transcriptomics technique was used to identify differentially expressed genes between the Con group， the HFHC group， and the EGCG group and perform the GSEA analysis， and pathways with a P-adjust value of <0.05 that were associated with MASH were further classified into metabolism-related pathways and inflammation-related pathways. The specific signaling pathways in each category were ranked based on the degree of enrichment， and key genes in the top three pathways were verified by PCR in vivo. Key genes in the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway were verified by Western blotting. A one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data with homogeneity of variance between multiple groups， and the least significant difference t-test was used for further comparison between two groups.  Results  Compared with the HFHC group， the EGCG group had significant reductions in the content of TG in liver tissue （P<0.05） and the serum levels of ALT and AST （P<0.05）. Oil red O staining showed significant alleviation of hepatocyte fatty degeneration in the EGCG group， HE staining showed that EGCG effectively alleviated inflammation， and picrosirius red staining showed a significant reduction in the number of fibrous tissue after EGCG treatment. There was a significant reduction in the content of hydroxyproline in liver tissue after EGCG intervention （P<0.01）. Cell experiments showed that compared with the FFA group， the EGCG group had a significant reduction in the content of TG， and oil red O staining showed the disappearance of lipid droplets in the EGCG group compared with the FFA group， with significant reductions in the relative mRNA expression levels of the inflammatory factors TNF-α， CCL2， and CXCL10 （all P<0.01）. The transcriptomics analysis identified 230 differentially expressed genes between the HFHC group and the EGCG group， among which there were 108 upregulated genes and 122 downregulated genes. EGCG significantly reduced the levels of the key proteins TLR4， NLRP3， and IL-1β in the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway in liver tissue （all P<0.05）.  Conclusion  EGCG can significantly alleviate lipid deposition， inflammation， and fibrosis in the mouse model of MASH and improve lipid deposition and inflammatory injury in L02 cells， possibly by regulating the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway.

     

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