Recently, the team of Dr. Xiao Xu published an article in a Nature Publishing Group Journal (Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy) entitled The circFASN/miR-33a pathway participates in tacrolimus-induced dysregulation of hepatic triglyceride homeostasis. Dr. Xu has served as a surgeon for 23 years in the Department of Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery at The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. For his outstanding work in the field of liver transplantation, he was elected as the Vice President, the Chinese Society of Organ Transplantation and the Head of Liver Transplantation Program, the Chinese Society of Organ Transplantation.

From January 1, 2015, the use of the death penalty prisoners’ organ has been fully ceased for transplantation and the community-based organ donation has become the only legitimate source of transplantable organ in China. Since then, China have become the second largest country for organ transplantation, completes more than 6,000 liver transplants each year. However, the incidences of post-transplant metabolic diseases, such as post-transplant diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, were approximately up to 40-60%, which severely restricted transplantation efficacy and receipts prognosis. This study was the first time to explain the underlying molecular mechanism of metabolic diseases in liver transplant recipients from the noncoding-RNAs level. It was innovatively found that the monitoring of plasma mir-33a level in transplant recipients could effectively and sensitively alert the early occurrence of hyperlipidemia after transplantation. The study also confirmed a circFASN/miR-33a signaling pathway, which played a key role in hyperlipidemia and transplanted liver steatosis. Additionally, the study proved that targeting mir-33a treatment could significantly ameliorate accumulations of fatty acids in liver and improve transplanted liver steatosis. The above results provide new ideas and strategies for the effective diagnosis and treatment of complications after liver transplantation and long-term survival of recipients.

Schematic representation of the circFASN/miR-33a regulatory system in TAC-induced disruption of lipid homeostasis in terms of liver.

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy is an internationally influential leading journal selected for the China Science and Technology Periodicals Excellence Action Plan (immediate impact factor> 14). Dr. Xiao Xu is the final corresponding author of the paper and Academician Shusen Zheng is the co-corresponding author. PhD student Chenzhi Zhang is the first author and PhD student Chen Kangchen is the co-first author. This research was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the National Science and Technology Major Project.