Abstract 5728: Liver progenitor cells induces fibrosis via RAGE signaling upon liver injury
Authors: Lam Wai Ling Macrina , Gabernet Gisela , Poth Tanja , De Ponti Aurora , Saborowski Anna , Nahnsen Sven , Schneller Doris , Angel Peter 
Published: September 2020

Liver fibrosis is characterized by hepatic stellate cell activation and extracellular matrix deposition upon persistent injury and inflammation, which can impair hepatic function and its ability to regenerate. The origin and physiological role of facultative liver progenitor cells (LPCs) have been a controversial issue as it was found to be a major player to regenerate the damaged liver, but it is also associated with fibrosis, disease progression or tumor initiation.

The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) signaling axis is often associated with chronic inflammation-associated tissue damage and plays an essential role in modulating the tumor microenvironment. Our previous data suggested that RAGE mediates LPC expansion, onset of liver fibrosis and HCC formation (Pusterla et al. Hepatology. 2013.) Hence, in this study, we seek to delineate the functional role and underlying mechanism of RAGE activity in LPC activation in response to inflammation-associated liver injury.

R26TomHnf1β-CreER transgenic mice were crossed with Rage flox/flox (Ragefl/fl) mice to generate tamoxifen-inducible LPC-specific RAGE knockout mice (RAGEΔLPC). They were exposed to a choline-deficient ethionine-supplemented (CDE) diet for three weeks to induce liver damage. Ablation of RAGE in LPCs strongly impairs LPC expanding capacities in CDE diet-treated mice. Strikingly, this is accompanied by reduction of activated hepatic stellate cells and bridging fibrosis. This demonstrated that RAGE signaling in LPCs is a mediator of liver fibrosis in vivo.

Necroinflammation is known to be associated with liver fibrosis. To investigate the role of RAGE in LPCs in the context of necroinflammation in vitro, primary LPCs were isolated from CDE-treated Ragefl/fl C57BL/6 mouse. Wildtype and knockout Rage cell lines were established. LPCs were stimulated with supernatants from necrotic hepatocytes followed by whole transcriptome sequencing to identify downstream targets of RAGE-dependent pathways. Stress response, inflammatory and pro-fibrotic pathways were enriched in LPCs upon treatment with necrotic medium. Most interestingly, signaling pathways that regulate organ size, tissue homeostasis and cell survival were found to be RAGE-dependent. Moreover, clusters of stem cell renewal-related genes were deregulated upon ablation of RAGE. In line with the whole transcriptome profile, we demonstrated that ablation of RAGE attenuates LPCs organoid-forming ability, implying that RAGE regulates stemness properties of LPCs.

Our recent results demonstrated that RAGE is required for LPCs activation and proliferation, as well as the crosstalk with stellate cells in supporting fibrogenesis. Taken together, our data uncovers a potential mechanistic insight on the role of RAGE in LPCs in association with fibrosis upon chronic liver injury.

Citation Format: Wai Ling Macrina Lam, Gisela Gabernet, Tanja Poth, Aurora De Ponti, Anna Saborowski, Sven Nahnsen, Doris Schneller, Peter Angel. Liver progenitor cells induces fibrosis via RAGE signaling upon liver injury [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 5728.