Icariin alleviates high‐fat diet‐induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease via up‐regulating miR‐206 to mediate NF‐κB and MAPK pathways

Abstract Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an abnormal lipid accumulation disease in hepatocytes. The existing drugs for NAFLD have some side effects, so new therapeutic agents are required to be explored. In this study, the effect and mechanism of icariin (ICA) on high‐fat diet‐induced NAFLD were investigated. Firstly, a high‐fat diet was used to construct a NAFLD rat model and HepG2 cells were treated with 1 mM free fatty acid (FFA). After ICA treatment, the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBil), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C) and high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C) were measured; liver injury and lipid deposition were observed by H&E and Oil Red O staining; interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β), IL‐12, and IL‐6 were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Additionally, qRT‐PCR and western blot were performed to detect miR‐206 expression and NF‐κB/MAPK pathway‐related protein expression in liver tissues and cells. After a variety of trials, we discovered that compared with the NAFLD group, ICA significantly reduced ALT, AST, TBil, TG, TC, and LDL‐C levels and increased HDL‐C levels, and improved liver tissue injury and lipid deposition. Moreover, ICA reduced IL‐1β, IL‐12, and IL‐6 levels in liver tissues and cells as well as inhibited MAPK and NF‐κB‐related protein expression in the liver tissues. Notably, ICA could significantly increase miR‐206 expression in liver tissues and cells. Further experiments confirmed that inhibition of miR‐206 was able to reverse the effect of ICA on NAFLD. In conclusion, ICA can alleviate NAFLD by upregulating miR‐206 to mediate NF‐κB and MAPK pathways.