Abstract: To investigate the effect of Echinococcus multilocularis infection on the lipid metabolism in the liver of mice, 60 clean-grade BALB/c mice (6-week-old, male) were randomly divided into two groups with 30 mice in each group. The mice in the experimental group were intraperitoneally injected with 600 protoscoleces, while mice in the control group were treated with an equal volume of PBS. Hepatocytes were obtained by separation and purification. High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the differentially expressed mRNAs of hepatocytes from mice liver at 3 months post infection (Mpi) and KEGG,GO analysis and qRT-PCR were used for verification. Liver tissue sections of mice at 2, 3 and 6 Mpi were stained with Oil Red O. The expression levels of lipid metabolism-related genes in hepatocytes at different infection stages were detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the fat deposition in the liver increased significantly compared with the control group at 3 and 6 Mpi. Lipid synthesis-related genes Scd1, Fasn and Srebf1, and lipid oxidation-related genes Acox1 and Cpt1α were significantly up-regulated in hepatocytes at 2 Mpi of E. multilocularis; the expression levels of Scd1, Fasn, Srebf1 and Cd36 were significantly increased, however, expression levels of Acox1, Cpt1α, Pparγ, and Pparα were significantly decreased in hepatocytes at 3 Mpi of E. multilocularis. The above results suggest that E. multilocularis infection may induce hepatic lipid deposition by promoting lipid synthesis in hepatocytes and inhibiting lipid oxidative.

Key words: Echinococcus multilocularis, hepatocytes, lipid metabolism, lipid deposition