Cited by 448Liver physiology and pathologyLiver Disease Diagnosis and TreatmentCytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions

Interleukin-22 induces hepatic stellate cell senescence and restricts liver fibrosis in mice

Open access
Kong, Xiaoni, Feng, Dechun, Wang, Hua, Hong, Feng, Bertola, Adeline, Wang, Fu-Sheng, Gao, Bin·2012·Hepatology

Abstract

Interleukin (IL)-22 is known to play a key role in promoting antimicrobial immunity, inflammation, and tissue repair at barrier surfaces by binding to the receptors, IL-10R2 and IL-22R1. IL-22R1 is generally thought to be expressed exclusively in epithelial cells. In this study, we identified high levels of IL-10R2 and IL-22R1 expression on hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), the predominant cell type involved in liver fibrogenesis in response to liver damage. In vitro treatment with IL-22 induced the activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 in primary mouse and human HSCs. IL-22 administration prevented HSC apoptosis in vitro and in vivo , but surprisingly, the overexpression of IL-22 by either gene targeting (e.g., IL-22 transgenic mice) or exogenous administration of adenovirus expressing IL-22 reduced liver fibrosis and accelerated the resolution of liver fibrosis during recovery. Furthermore, IL-22 overexpression or treatment increased the number of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase-positive HSCs and decreased alpha-smooth muscle actin expression in fibrotic livers in vivo and cultured HSCs in vitro . Deletion of STAT3 prevented IL-22-induced HSC senescence in vitro , whereas the overexpression of a constitutively activated form of STAT3 promoted HSC senescence through p53- and p21-dependent pathways. Finally, IL-22 treatment up-regulated the suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) 3 expression in HSCs. Immunoprecipitation analyses revealed that SOCS3 bound p53 and subsequently increased the expression of p53 and its target genes, contributing to IL-22-mediated HSC senescence. Conclusion : IL-22 induces the senescence of HSCs, which express both IL-10R2 and IL-22R1, thereby ameliorating liver fibrogenesis. The antifibrotic effect of IL-22 is likely mediated by the induction of HSC senescence, in addition to the previously discovered hepatoprotective functions of IL-22.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/hep.25744

Cites

27 of 27 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Previous studies detected elevated STAT3 phosphorylation in all rodent models with liver injury and fibrosis and in samples of patients with fibrosis and cirrhosis.

    “Previous studies detected elevated STAT3 phosphorylation in all rodent models with liver injury and fibrosis and in the samples of patients with fibrosis and cirrhosis [46, 47].”

    From Saikosaponin b1 Attenuates Liver Fibrosis by Blocking STAT3/Gli1 Interaction and Inducing Gli1 Degradation (2025) · cites this paper as [47]

    The Results section on IL-22 signaling reports STAT3 activation after IL-22 exposure in cultured hepatic stellate cells. The Animal models section describes a mouse fibrosis model, but neither passage reports elevated STAT3 phosphorylation across rodent injury models or in patient samples with fibrosis or cirrhosis. Searches for those specific observations found no supporting passage in our copy; page numbers were unavailable. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • There is evidence of a beneficial effect of both pro-senescent and anti-senescent approaches, depending on context.

    “There is evidence of a beneficial effect of both pro-senescent and anti-senescent approaches, depending on context.”

    From Ageing, Cellular Senescence and Neurodegenerative Disease (2018) · cites this paper as [300]

  • A pro-senescent effect may be desirable in treating cancer, renal, liver and cutaneous fibrosis.

    “A pro-senescent effect may be desirable in treating cancer [295,296,297], renal, liver and cutaneous fibrosis [298,299,300,301].”

    From Ageing, Cellular Senescence and Neurodegenerative Disease (2018) · cites this paper as [300]

  • IL-22, which is produced by ILC3 and signals through the IL-22/IL-22R1/IL-10R2 complex, ameliorated experimental liver fibrosis by inducing HSC senescence via upregulation of STAT3.

    “Accordingly, IL-22, which is produced by ILC3 and signals through the IL-22/IL-22R1/IL-10R2 complex, ameliorated experimental liver fibrosis by inducing HSC senescence via upregulation of STAT3.91”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kong, X., Feng, D., Wang, H., Hong, F., Bertola, A., Wang, F.-S., & Gao, B.
Affiliations
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Corresponding author
Gao, Bin
Venue
Hepatology
Published
2012-09
Volume
56
Issue
3
Pages
1150-1159
ISSN
0270-9139 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2079241145
Cited by
448
References
27
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 8
FWCI
19.65
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Hepatology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Louisiana State University
  • Hokkaido University
  • National Institutes of Health (Z99‐AA999999)
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (ZIAAA000368, ZIAAA000369)
  • National Cancer Institute
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Hepatology › Liver physiology and pathology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions
Keywords
IL-22, hepatic stellate cells, cellular senescence, liver fibrosis, STAT3 signaling, p53, p21, SOCS3, IL-10R2, antifibrotic therapy, alpha-smooth muscle actin, senescence-associated β-galactosidase
MeSH terms
Interleukin-22, Animals, Humans, Interleukins, Liver Cirrhosis, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Cellular Senescence, Mice, Hepatic Stellate Cells

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review