{"doi":"10.17615/gg9v-jk53","title":"Delivery of matrix metalloproteinase-1 attenuates established liver fibrosis in the rat","abstract":"BACKGROUND & AIMS: During hepatic fibrogenesis, the hepatic extracellular matrix changes to fibrillar collagens types I and III, and cirrhosis is believed to produce an irreversible scar. In this study, we investigated whether gene delivery of human matrix metalloproteinase-1, which degrades collagens types I and type III, would attenuate established hepatic fibrosis in the rat, induced by either thioacetamide or bile duct ligation. METHODS: Hepatic fibrosis induced by thioacetamide for 7 weeks was persistent for at least 2 months, even after discontinuation of the treatment. The rats were infected once with a recombinant adenovirus, Ad5MMP-1, into which human pro-human matrix metalloproteinase-1 complementary DNA was packaged, or with a control adenovirus, Ad5LacZ. RESULTS: In Ad5MMP-1-infected, but not in Ad5LacZ-infected, rats, the fibrosis was dramatically attenuated at 2 weeks after the infection. It is interesting to note that the number of activated hepatic stellate cells was also decreased in Ad5MMP-1-infected rats. Moreover, disorganization of the hepatic trabecula, heterogeneity in the size of hepatocytes, and increased dried liver weight were observed only in Ad5MMP-1-treated rats, suggesting that human matrix metalloproteinase-1 stimulated hepatocyte proliferation, which was confirmed by bromodeoxyuridine staining. After 4 weeks, the proliferative effect of human matrix metalloproteinase-1 almost disappeared, but the hepatic fibrosis remained attenuated, whereas the fibrosis in Ad5LacZ-treated rats persisted. Furthermore, the administration of Ad5MMP-1, but not Ad5LacZ, decreased type I collagen and generated a small collagen fragment in hepatic fibrosis induced by bile duct ligation. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that transient human matrix metalloproteinase-1 overexpression in the liver effectively attenuates established fibrosis and induces hepatocyte proliferation.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2021,"id":205608,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":15,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9618,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":612973,"name":"Branko Stefanovic","orcid":"0000-0002-0246-9553","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":312531,"name":"Yoshio Yamaoka","orcid":"0000-0002-1222-5819","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":789375,"name":"Yuji Iimuro","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":789376,"name":"Sung Kyu Choi","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":789377,"name":"Taisuke Morimoto","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55529,"name":"Takashi Nitta","orcid":"0009-0004-3068-0550","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":232503,"name":"David A. Brenner","orcid":"0000-0003-2573-525X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":789374,"name":"Toshihiro Nishio","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:51:33.996102Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}