ASIC1a promotes high glucose and PDGF-induced hepatic stellate cell activation by inducing autophagy through CaMKKβ/ERK signaling pathway.

It is well known that the diabetes mellitus complicates liver fibrosis with high morbidity, and Acid-sensing ion Channel 1a (ASIC1a) plays an important role in the development of diabetes and liver fibrosis. However, the underlying mechanism about how diabetes influences the progression of liver fibrosis remains unclear. This study was to investigate the relationship between autophagy and ASIC1a in the process of liver fibrosis under hyperglycemia. Interestingly, our study showed that the autophagy was elevated in the livers from diabetes combined with liver fibrosis double model in vivo and also in rat hepatic stellate cell line HSC-T6 after stimulation with high glucose and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) in vitro, and this response could be attenuated by treatment with ASIC1a nonspecific inhibitor Amiloride or specific ShRNA for ASIC1a. Furthermore, inhibition of autophagy treated with 3-MA significantly attenuated HSC-T6 activation and proliferation. Mechanistically, CaMKKβ/ERK pathway was activated in HSC-T6 after stimulation with high glucose and PDGF, and could be suppressed by Amiloride. Collectively, we concluded that autophagy induced by ASIC1a contributes to HSC-T6 activation, which ing pathway.