Gene expression profiles of livers and liver tumors from mice fed high-fat diet and high fructose-glucose solution for 52 weeks

The lack of a preclinical model of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and hepatocellular cancer (HCC) that recapitulates human disease is a major barrier to therapeutic development. We report a high fat-high sugar diet-induced NASH and HCC in a stable isogenic 129S1/SvImJ crossed with C57Bl/6J mice. Following diet initiation, there was sequential development of steatosis (4-8 weeks), steatohepatitis with ballooning and Mallory-Denk bodies (12-16 weeks), progressive fibrosis (16 week onwards) and spontaneous HCC (32-52 weeks). The mice developed obesity, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. There was concordance with the human NASH transcriptome (FDR 0.001) with activation of lipogenic, inflammatory and apoptotic pathways relevant in humans. The HCC gene signature resembled S1 and S2 human HCC subclass (FDR 0.01 for both). This simple model of NASH and HCC that resembles human disease in terms of its triggers, physiological and biochemical parameters, histology, transcriptomic profile, and outcomes can facilitate preclinical development for these conditions.