Activation of Pancreatic Acinar FXR Protects against Pancreatitis via Osgin1-Mediated Restoration of Efficient Autophagy

Yufan Zheng; Wenrui Sun; Zhengyang Wang; Jiaying Liu; Cong Shan; Chenxi He; Borui Li; Xiao Hu; Wenjia Zhu; Liyan Liu; Fei Lan; Changtao Jiang; Chao Zhao; Xiaobo Li; Ning Sun

doi:10.34133/2022/9784081

Activation of Pancreatic Acinar FXR Protects against Pancreatitis via Osgin1-Mediated Restoration of Efficient Autophagy

Research (Wash D C). 2022 Nov 2:2022:9784081. doi: 10.34133/2022/9784081. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yufan Zheng^{1

2}, Wenrui Sun², Zhengyang Wang³, Jiaying Liu², Cong Shan¹, Chenxi He⁴, Borui Li², Xiao Hu³, Wenjia Zhu², Liyan Liu⁵, Fei Lan⁴, Changtao Jiang⁶, Chao Zhao², Xiaobo Li², Ning Sun^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Wuxi School of Medicine, Jiangnan University, Jiangsu, China.
² Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, International Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism, Ministry of Science and Technology, Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University and Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Liver Cancer Institute, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ General Practice/International Medical Care Center, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Science, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Pancreatitis is the leading cause of hospitalization in gastroenterology, and no medications are available for treating this disease in current clinical practice. FXR plays an anti-inflammatory role in diverse inflammatory diseases, while its function in pancreatitis remains unknown. In this study, we initially observed a marked increase of nuclear FXR in pancreatic tissues of human patients with pancreatitis. Deleting the FXR in pancreatic acinar cells (FXR^acinarΔ/Δ ) led to more severe pancreatitis in mouse models of caerulein-induced acute and chronic pancreatitis, while the FXR agonist GW4064 significantly attenuated pancreatitis in caerulein or arginine-induced acute pancreatitis and caerulein-induced chronic pancreatitis. FXR deletion impaired the viability and stress responses of pancreatic exocrine organoids (PEOs) in vitro. Utilizing RNA-seq and ChIP-seq of PEOs, we identified Osgin1 as a direct target of FXR in the exocrine pancreas, which was also increasingly expressed in human pancreatitis tissues compared to normal pancreatic tissues. Pancreatic knockdown of Osgin1 by AAV-pan abolished the therapeutic effects of FXR activation on pancreatitis, whereas pancreatic overexpression of Osgin1 effectively alleviated caerulein-induced pancreatitis. Mechanistically, we found that the FXR-OSGIN1 axis stimulated autophagic flux in the pancreatic tissues and cell lines, which was considered as the intrinsic mechanisms through which FXR-OSGIN1 protecting against pancreatitis. Our results highlight the protective role of the FXR-OSGIN1 axis in pancreatitis and provided a new target for the treatment of this disease.