Effect Of Medium Chain Fatty Acids On Apoptosis And Inflammatory Response In Human Liver Cells

Medium chain fatty acids(MCFA) can be more easily absorbed and supply energy more rapidly than long chain fatty acids(LCFA) by the advantages of shorter chain and smaller molecule, leading to be researched widely. However, the study of inflammatory response after the treatment of MCFA remains few. Then this study used human hepatocellular carcinoma cells to evaluate the apoptosis and inflammatory effects of MCFA.MTT and LDH assays were used to measure the viability of the LO2 cells, the isolated spleens and liver cells from BALB/C mice; inverted fluorescence microscope and FCM were used to assess the cell apoptosis; SOD and MDA assays were taken to determine the oxidative damage; HPLC method was applied to test the intracellular protein alteration; the classic pro-inflammatory cytokines(TNF-?, MCP-1, IL-1?, IL-8, IL-6) were analysed by q-PCR, ELISA and western blotting.The results showed that the liver cells treated with the fatty acids at 200 ?M for 24 h kept well viability, and FA groups may evoke little oxidative stress compared with the control group. LPS potently activated inflammatory cytokines in the transcription level and translation level, while the fatty acids induced to a lesser extent. LCFA- oleic acid up-regulated TNF-?, MCP-1, IL-1? while down-regulated IL-6 and IL-8 secretion at a more extent than MCFA in LO2 cells. The similar effects on mRNA transcription were observed accordingly. Protein levels also reflected this variation. Those findings suggested that MCFA exerted more gentle inflammatory response and induced less apoptosis than LCFA in vitro.