Abstract
Liver-specific insulin resistance is associated with the development of the main challenges in metabolism, resulting in dyslipidemia, hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia. In vitro models developed for researching hepatic insulin resistance are limited and employed cell lines without similar characteristics to primary human hepatocytes. The Huh7 cell line has been established as a model with similar characteristics to primary human hepatocytes. In addition, it has been identified in the Huh7 cell line that infection with the hepatitis C virus induces insulin resistance. Therefore, we analyzed the induction of insulin resistance (IR) in the Huh7 cell line using an overdosage of insulin and treatment with metformin for its reversal, with the purpose of establishing an insulin resistance model useful for metabolic and pharmacological studies. Insulin-resistant Huh7 (Huh7-IR) showed a reduction in Glut2, glycogen levels, and glucose uptake stimulated by insulin or tyrosine phosphorylation from the β-fraction of insulin receptor post-insulin stimulation, with an increase of glucose production and lipid intracellular content. These biomarkers are frequently observed in insulin-resistant hepatic cells. Moreover, treatment of Huh7-IR with 0.5, 1 or 2 mM of metformin by 24 h decreased the biomarkers associated with an insulin-resistant state. These results suggest that Huh7-IR could be used as an in vitro system to research hepatic insulin resistance in metabolic and pharmacological studies.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by CONACYT grants (Project with code number 283801). During the study, José Manuel Villalva-Pérez and Jesús Isimar Serafín-Fabían were grant recipients of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) of Mexico.
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by MAR-V, JMV-P, JIS-F, MEM-G and ME-R. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MAR-V and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Villalva-Pérez, J.M., Ramírez-Vargas, M.A., Serafín-Fabían, J.I. et al. Characterization of Huh7 cells after the induction of insulin resistance and post-treatment with metformin. Cytotechnology 72, 499–511 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-020-00398-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-020-00398-4