Page 26 - N. Metabolism and metabolic diseases

[N. Metabolism and metabolic diseases-14]

The study of Hes1 in hepatic steatosis development

Jaegyeong Lee¹˙², Kyung-Hee Chun¹˙²

¹Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea,

²Brain Korea 21 PLUS, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is excessive fat in the liver with insulin resistance due to causes other than
alcohol use. Hairy and enhancer of split-1(Hes1) is a protein that is encoded by Hes1 gene. Hes1 plays an important

role in the Notch signaling pathway. This protein is known to regulate liver fibrosis and hepatic lipid accumulation.

Yes-associated protein (YAP) and transcriptional coactivator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ), one of major downstream
effector of the Hippo pathway, are also known to be related to liver metabolism. However, the correlation between
Hes1 and YAP/TAZ in liver has not been clarified.

In this study, we investigated whether Hes1 regulates lipid accumulation. The knock-down of Hes1 expression results
in decreased expression level of adipogenic markers fatty acid synthase (FASN) and proliferator-activated receptor

(PPAR)-g and also decreased YAP/TAZ expression. Accordingly, we found out that Hes1 interacts with YAP/TAZ by
immunoprecipitation assay. Collectively, these results suggest that the correlation between Hes1 and YAP/TAZ is an

important factor in regulating the hepatic lipid accumulation and Hes1-YAP/TAZ axis might be therapeutic target.