Background/aims: Binge drinking leads to many disorders, including alcoholic hepatosteatosis, which is characterized by intrahepatic neutrophil infiltration and increases the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Molecular mechanisms may involve the migration of bacterial metabolites from the gut to the liver and the activation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).
Methods: Serum samples from both binge drinking and alcohol-avoiding patients were analyzed. Mouse models of chronic plus binge alcohol-induced hepatosteatosis and HCC models were used.
Results: A marker of NETs formation, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), was significantly higher in alcoholic hepatosteatosis and HCC patients and mice than in controls. Intrahepatic inflammation markers and HCC-related cytokines were decreased in mice with reduced NET formation due to neutrophil elastase (NE) deletion, and liver-related symptoms of alcohol were also alleviated in NE knockout mice. Removal of intestinal bacteria with antibiotics led to decreases in markers of NETs formation and inflammatory cytokines upon chronic alcohol consumption, and development of alcoholic hepatosteatosis and HCC was also attenuated. These functions were restored upon supplementation with the bacterial product LPS. When mice lacking toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) received chronic alcohol feeding, intrahepatic markers of NETs formation decreased, and hepatosteatosis and HCC were alleviated.
Conclusion: Formation of NETs following LPS stimulation of TLR4 upon chronic alcohol use leads to increased alcoholic steatosis and subsequent HCC.
Keywords: Alcoholics; Extracellular traps; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Hepatosteatosis; Lipopolysaccharides; Toll-like receptor 4.