Uric acid (UA), the end-product of
purine metabolism, is closely related to hepatic
insulin resistance (IR). Autophagy is a conserved intracellular degradation process maintaining cellular homeostasis. Autophagy plays a protective role in
obesity-related hepatic IR, but whether it occurs in high
uric acid (HUA)-induced hepatic IR is unclear. In this study, spontaneously elevated UA level induced hepatic IR and facilitated hepatic autophagy degradation in
uricase knockout (Uox-/-) mice. In vitro, HepG2 cells stimulated with HUA medium showed decreased
glucose uptake and inhibition of
insulin signaling pathways, concomitant with activation of autophagy, as manifested by increased conversion of LC3B-I to -II.
Rapamycin, the autophagy activator, alleviated but the autophagy inhibitor trimethyl
adenine (3-MA) aggravated HUA-induced IR in HepG2 cells. Similarly,
rapamycin ameliorated and 3-MA worsened HUA-induced
blood glucose level and hepatic IR in Uox-/- mice. Mechanistically, HUA enhanced AMPKα phosphorylation (p-AMPKα) and inhibited
mammalian target of rapamycin phosphorylation (p-mTOR) in HepG2 cells. The levels of p-AMPKα and LC3B-II/I were downregulated in HepG2 cells transfected with
small interfering RNA (
siRNA) against AMPKα, which suggests that the AMPKα-mTOR pathway was involved in HUA-induced autophagy.
Antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine reversed elevated
reactive oxygen species levels induced by HUA in HepG2 cells, and AMPKα level was also inhibited, which suggests that AMPKα activation may be derived from
reactive oxygen species. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that HUA increased hepatic autophagy, and autophagy activation plays a protective role in hepatic IR, which may suggest a potential therapeutic target for hepatic IR derived from HUA.