Pollutants in Liver Inflammation-Cancer Transition

Reveals the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of pollutant-driven liver inflammation-to-cancer transition, offering new targets for diagnosis, therapy, and environmental health risk assessment.

Zhou, Yanfeng · Mu, Wei

Toxics 2025

Advantages

Resolves disease stages

Categorizes the inflammation-cancer transition into NAFLD, fibrosis, and HCC, revealing temporal heterogeneity to clarify stage-specific pathology.

Identifies key molecules

Multi-omics analyses identify pathogenic molecules and signaling pathways regulated by pollutants, such as Wnt/β-catenin activation and p53 inactivation, offering potential targets for diagnostics and therapeutics.

Shows microenvironment modulation

Reveals that pollutants not only damage hepatocytes directly but also modulate key immune microenvironment cells like hepatic stellate cells and Kupffer cells, amplifying inflammatory and fibrotic responses.

Applications

• environmental health risk assessment：Identifies early biomarkers of pollutant exposure for health risk warning and preventive measures.
• pollutant hepatotoxicity research：Provides stage-specific molecular mechanisms of pollutant-induced liver damage for toxicity screening and therapeutic studies.