Epigenomic map of human liver reveals principles of zonated morphogenic and metabolic control

Liver Systems Medicine : striving to develop non-invasive methods for diagnosing and treating NAFLD by combining mathematical modeling and biological research. LiSyM, is a multidisciplinary research network, in which molecular and cell biologists, clinical researchers, pharmacologists and experts in mathematical modeling examine the liver in its entirety. LiSyM research focuses on the metabolic liver disease non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which includes non-alcoholic steatohepatitis ...

One of the tasks of the healthy liver is to store fat. Yet, at some stage, too much fat makes the liver sick. One critical time point occurs when a healthy fatty liver becomes inflamed and progresses to steatohepatitis, or NASH. LiSyM-Pillar I will identify what events lead to this transition. Does it occur in all parts of the liver? Which molecules indicate that it is taking place? Can the degeneration be stopped or undone - and if so, how?

To investigate the underlying molecular principles of metabolic and morphogenic zonation of the human liver lobule, we generated an integrated epigenetic map across three zones (pericentral, intermediate and periportal) by methylation and transcriptomic analysis of hepatocytes captured by laser micro-dissection. We observe a deep link between epigenetic zonation of human liver and a zonated expression of metabolic and morphogenic pathways: Key transcriptionally zonated enzymes in xenobiotic and ...

Talk at the Jamboree 2021 about epigenomic map of human liver zonation and loss of zonation in end-stage liver disease