LncRNA-Airn alleviates acute liver injury by inhibiting hepatocyte apoptosis via the NF-kappa B signaling pathway

Acute liver injury is a common and serious syndrome caused by multiple factors and unclear pathogenesis. If the injury persists, liver injury can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure and ultimately results in the development of liver cancer. Emerging evidence has indicated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the development of liver injury. However, the role of antisense Igf2r RNA (Airn) in acute liver injury and its underlying mechanism remain largely unclear. In this study, we show that Airn is upregulated in liver tissue and primary hepatocytes from an acute liver injury mouse model. Consistently, Airn is also overexpressed in serum samples of patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure and is negatively correlated with the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. Moreover, gene knockout and rescue assays reveal that Airn alleviates CCl4-induced liver injury by inhibiting hepatocyte apoptosis and oxidative stress in vivo. Further investigation reveals that Airn decreases H2O2-induced hepatocyte apoptosis in vitro. Mechanistically, we reveal that Airn represses CCl4- and H2O2-induced enhancement of phosphorylation of p65 and I kappa Ba, suggesting that Airn inhibits hepatocyte apoptosis by inactivating the NF-kappa B pathway. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that Airn can alleviate acute liver injury by inhibiting hepatocyte apoptosis via inactivating the NF-kappa B signaling pathway, and Airn could be a potential biomarker for acute liver injury.