Recent progress in the effect of ferroptosis of HSCs on the development of liver fibrosis

Rui Tang; Jing Luo; Xiaoxia Zhu; Pengyu Miao; Hong Tang; Yue Jian; Sibei Ruan; Feng Ling; Mingxi Tang

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1258870

Recent progress in the effect of ferroptosis of HSCs on the development of liver fibrosis

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Sep 26:10:1258870. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1258870. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Rui Tang¹, Jing Luo¹, Xiaoxia Zhu², Pengyu Miao¹, Hong Tang², Yue Jian¹, Sibei Ruan², Feng Ling², Mingxi Tang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.
² Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.

Abstract

Fibrosis is a common pathological process that must take place for multiple chronic liver diseases to develop into cirrhosis and liver cancer. Liver fibrosis (LF) is regulated by various cytokines and signaling pathways in its occurrence and development. Ferroptosis is an important mode of cell death caused by iron-dependent oxidative damage and is regulated by iron metabolism and lipid peroxidation signaling pathways. In recent years, numerous studies have shown that ferroptosis is closely related to LF. As the main material secreted by the extracellular matrix, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are a general concern in the development of LF. Therefore, targeting HSC ferroptosis against LF is crucial. This review describes the current status of treating LF by inducing HSC ferroptosis that would aid studies in better understanding the current knowledge on ferroptosis in HSCs and the future research direction in this field.

Keywords: HSCs; ferroptosis; iron ions; lipid peroxidation; liver fibrosis.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The authors declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors thank the financial support provided by the Scientific Research Starting Foundation for Doctor of Southwest Medical University of China (2011204 to MT); the Joint Research Fund for Sichuan Province Science and Technology Agency and Southwest Medical University of China (14JC0161 to MT); and the Foundation of the Affiliated Hospital, Southwest Medical University of China (2015-PT-009 to HT).