Abstract

Background & Aims: Steatohepatitis drives fibrogenesis in alcohol-related liver disease. Recent studies have suggested that hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) may regulate the parenchymal cell injury and inflammation that precedes liver fibrosis, although the mechanism remains incompletely defined. Neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) and synectin are membrane proteins implicated in HSC activation. In this study, we disrupted NRP-1 and synectin as models to evaluate the role of HSC activation on the development of steatohepatitis in response to alcohol feeding in mice.