An international joint research team at CNU is garnering attention for identifying a new causal mechanism for liver damage caused by alcohol and identifying new key factors.
 
The research team led by CNU Professor Choi Heung-sik (School of Biological Science and Technology) achieved these results through joint research with the research team of Dr. Kim Yong-hoon and Dr. Lee Cheol-ho of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB) and Professor Steven Dooley of Heidelberg University. The result of this study was published in the May issue of the academic journal Redox Biology (impact index 11.4, JCR top 6.8%).

According to the research team, when a person consumes alcohol, the CB1 receptor present in the liver cell membrane is activated and liver damage occurs due to the secretion of the hormone FGF23, which is increased by ERRγ through various cell signaling processes.  

Simply put, the hormone FGF23 causes increased gene expression of CYP2E1 and worsens liver damage by strengthening liver oxidative stress, so controlling the secretion of this hormone can improve alcoholic liver damage.

FGF23 is known to be mainly produced in bones and regulates phosphate and vitamin D metabolism. This hormone, whose expression and secretion increases with alcohol intake in liver cells, has been confirmed as a key factor in alcohol-related liver damage for the first time.

Dr. Jeong Yun-seok and Dr. Kamalakannan Radhakrishnan of CNU also participated as the lead authors of this study