TY - JOUR AB - The renin angiotensin system (RAS) plays a major role in liver fibrosis. A novel homologue of angiotensin converting enzyme, ACE2, was identified as a negative regulator of RAS as it degrades Ang II to Ang1-7. We investigated in vivo the expression of ACE2 in liver fibrosis. We evaluated the relationship between biochemical variables and liver tissue expression of ACE2, the correlation between a histological assessment of liver fibrosis and liver tissue expression of ACE2. Male SD rats were randomly divided into a CCL4 group which received injections of CCL4 and the control group which received injections of olive oil. Liver pathology was examined by H&E and Sirius red staining, and real-time PCR was performed to determine the gene expression levels of ACE2 and ACE. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that ACE2 mRNA was higher at the two-, four-, and six-week time points, respectively (p<0.01). Similarly, hepatic ACE mRNA was significantly increased after CCL4 injection. There was a significant correlation between ACE and ACE2 gene expression (r=0.750, P<0.001). ACE2 gene expression strongly correlated with ALT (r=0.669, P<0.0001) and AST levels (r=0.815, P<0.0001). There was a significant correlation between circulating ACE2 and histological scores of liver fibrosis. ACE2 and ACE gene expression correlated with the ISHAK score (r=0.850, P<0.001; r=0.806, P<0.001). There was a significant relationship between ACE2 gene expression and the degree of liver fibrosis. ACE2 plays a crucial role in liver fibrogenesis. AD - Department of Infectious Disease, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, P.R. China null AU - Huang,Qian AU - Xie,Qing AU - Shi,Cui-Cui AU - Xiang,Xiao-Gang AU - Lin,Lan-Yi AU - Gong,Bang-Dong AU - Zhao,Gang-De AU - Wang,Hui AU - Jia,Ni-Na DA - 2009/06/01 DO - 10.3892/ijmm_00000185 EP - 723 IS - 6 JO - Int J Mol Med PY - 2009 SN - 1107-3756 1791-244X SP - 717 ST - Expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in CCL4-induced rat liver fibrosis T2 - International Journal of Molecular Medicine TI - Expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in CCL4-induced rat liver fibrosis UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ijmm_00000185 VL - 23 ER -