Quercetin Alleviates High-Fat Diet-Induced Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein Accumulation in the Liver: Implication for Autophagy Regulation

A growing body of evidence has indicated that high-fat diet-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is usually accompanied by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) deposited in the liver. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of quercetin on high-fat diet-induced ox-LDL accumulation in the liver and to explore the potential underlying mechanisms. The results demonstrate that quercetin supplementation for 24 weeks significantly alleviated high-fat diet-induced liver damage and reduced hepatic cholesterol and ox-LDL level. Quercetin notably inhibited both mRNA and protein expression of CD36 (reduced by 53% and 71%, resp.) and MSR1 (reduced by 25% and 45%, resp.), which were upregulated by high-fat diet. The expression of LC3II was upregulated by 2.4 times whereas that of p62 and mTOR was downregulated by 57% and 63% by quercetin treatment. Therefore, the significantly improved autophagy lysosomal degradation capacity for ox-LDL may be implicated in the hepatoprotective effect of quercetin; scavenger receptors mediated ox-LDL uptake might also be involved.