Targeted Deletion of Thymosin Beta 4 in Hepatic Stellate Cells Ameliorates Liver Fibrosis in a Transgenic Mouse Model

Kim J, Lee C, Han J, Jeong H, Wang S, Choi YH, Jung Y · Cells

Deleting Tβ4 reduced liver injury and fibrosis by suppressing Hedgehog signalling, and putting it back restored the fibrosis — so in this organ endogenous Tβ4 drives scarring rather than preventing it.

Population

Conditional Tβ4-knockout mice with liver fibrosis induced by carbon tetrachloride or bile duct ligation

Intervention

Selective deletion of Tβ4 in activated hepatic stellate cells; re-expression by adeno-associated virus

Comparator

Littermate controls

Limitations

Hepatic stellate cells specifically; other groups report Tβ4 inhibiting stellate-cell activation, so the liver literature is itself split.