{"doi":"10.3389/fphys.2020.00013","title":"The Effect of Autophagy on Chronic Intermittent Hypobaric Hypoxia Ameliorating Liver Damage in Metabolic Syndrome Rats","abstract":"AIM: Our previous study demonstrated that chronic intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (CIHH) can confer hepatic protection by reducing endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) in high-fat-high-fructose induced metabolic syndrome (MS) rats. It is known that there is a functional coupling between autophagy and ERS. This study aimed to investigate the effect of CIHH on autophagy function and adenosine mono-phosphate-activated protein kinase-mammalian target of rapamycin (AMPKα-mTOR) signaling pathway in hepatic tissue of MS rats. MAIN METHODS: 6-week old male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into: control (CON), CIHH (treated with hypobaric hypoxia simulating 5000-m altitude for 28 days, 6 h daily), MS (induced by 16-week high fat diet and 10% fructose water feeding), and MS + CIHH groups (exposed to CIHH after 16-week MS model). Food and water intakes, body weight, Lee's index, fat coefficient, systolic arterial pressure, blood biochemicals, and histopathology of liver were measured, the expression of phosphorylated (p)-AMPK, p-mTOR, autophagy-related and ERS-related proteins were assayed in hepatic tissue. KEY FINDINGS: The MS rats displayed obesity, hypertension, polydipsia, glucose and lipids metabolism disorders, increased inflammatory cytokine, hepatic tissue morphological and functional damage, and the up-regulated expressions of ERS-related, autophagy-related proteins and p-mTOR, and the down-regulated expression of p-AMPKα. All aforementioned abnormalities in MS rats were ameliorated in MS + CIHH rats. SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion CIHH confers hepatic protection through activating AMPK-mTOR signaling pathway and the autophagy function, thus inhibiting ERS in hepatic tissue.","journal":"Frontiers in Physiology","year":2020,"id":68153,"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":22,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9643,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":362770,"name":"Hao Fei Hu","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361215,"name":"Jing Guo","orcid":"0000-0002-4781-8200","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361216,"name":"Jie Sun","orcid":"0000-0001-5210-6673","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361217,"name":"Min Shi","orcid":"0009-0004-8316-447X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361214,"name":"Fang Cui","orcid":"0000-0001-8746-2424","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:40:52.680475Z","pmid":"32082187","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":[]}