Pharmacological cholesterol lowering reverses fibrotic NASH in obese, diabetic mice with metabolic syndrome

DM Van Rooyen, LT Gan, MM Yeh, WG Haigh… - Journal of …, 2013 - Elsevier
BACKGROUND & AIMS: We have recently showed that hyperinsulinemia promotes hepatic
free cholesterol (FC) accumulation in obese, insulin-resistant Alms1 mutant (foz/foz) mice
with NASH. Here we tested whether cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce stress-activated c-
Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation, hepatocyte injury/apoptosis, inflammation, and
fibrosis in this metabolic syndrome NASH model. METHODS: Female foz/foz and WT mice
were fed HF (0.2% cholesterol) 16weeks, before adding ezetimibe (5mg/kg), atorvastatin …