Hepatoprotection of capsaicin in alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases

Abstract

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are common causes of chronic liver disease that share the range of steatosis, steatohepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and finally, hepatocellular carcinoma. They are identified by the dysregulation of disease-specific signalling pathways and unique microRNAs. Capsaicin is an active ingredient of chilli pepper that acts as an agonist of transient receptor potential vanilloid subfamily 1. It seems that the protective role of capsaicin against NAFLD and ALD is linked to its anti-steatotic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrotic effects. Capsaicin-induced inhibiting metabolic syndrome and gut dysbiosis and increasing bile acids production are also involved in its anti-NAFLD role. This review summarises the different molecular mechanisms underlying the protective role of capsaicin against NAFLD and ALD. More experimental studies are needed to clarify the effects of capsaicin on the expression of genes involved in hepatic lipid metabolism and hepatocytes apoptosis in NAFLD and ALD.

Keywords:

• Capsaicin
• non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
• alcoholic liver disease

Ethics approval

Ethical approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Approval ID: IR.TBZMED.VCR.REC.1398.118).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no data were generated or analysed in the present study.

Additional information

Funding

The grant of this study was provided by Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Research Center of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran [grant number: 62970].