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The liver is central for nutrient and xenobiotic metabolism.

The main liver disease in our western societies is Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Its prevalence has increased worldwide. It includes a wide spectrum of liver diseases highly correlated to the obesity epidemic. It is a major public health issue whose origin probably has to deal with hepatic lipid toxicity.

Essential fatty acid deficiency is known to induce several diseases, including steatosis as a consequence of increased de novo lipogenesis.

The Integrative Toxicology and Metabolism (ITM) research team of TOXALIM, led by Hervé Guillou (INRA), performed a nutrigenomics study to identify the mechanisms underlying the increased lipogenic response to a deficiency in essential fatty acids and in particular to clarify the role of a transcription factor: the liver X receptor (LXR).

• The results show that in the absence of LXR, a deficiency in essential fatty acids does not promote steatosis.

• The presence of LXRs is necessary for an increased expression of genes involved in lipogenesis in response to a deficiency in essential fatty acids.

• Omega 3 essential fatty acids prevent the steatosis induced by pharmacological LXR activation.

This work is part of the PhD thesis of Simon Ducheix (INRA, TOXALIM, Team 1-ITM & Team 4-NGN) and was published as an original article in The Journal of Hepatology:

• Ducheix S, Montagner A, Polizzi A. et al. Essential fatty acids deficiency promotes lipogenic gene expression and hepatic steatosis through the Liver X Receptor. J Hepatol 2013 (in press)