{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]],"date-time":"2026-04-09T19:59:19Z","timestamp":1775764759223,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,30]],"date-time":"2022-08-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1661817600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education","award":["NRF-2021R1I1A3046593"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2021R1I1A3046593"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education","award":["NRF-2021R1I1A3059150"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2021R1I1A3059150"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education","award":["NRF-2018R1A1A3A04078527"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2018R1A1A3A04078527"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education","award":["NRF-2022R1A2C1006416"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2022R1A2C1006416"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MIST)","award":["NRF-2021R1I1A3046593"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2021R1I1A3046593"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MIST)","award":["NRF-2021R1I1A3059150"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2021R1I1A3059150"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MIST)","award":["NRF-2018R1A1A3A04078527"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2018R1A1A3A04078527"]}]},{"name":"the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MIST)","award":["NRF-2022R1A2C1006416"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2022R1A2C1006416"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cells"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Autophagy performs essential cell functions in the liver through an intracellular lysosomal degradation process. Several studies have reported that autophagy deficiency can lead to liver injury, including hepatic fibrosis; however, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between autophagy deficiency and liver pathology are unclear. In this study, we examined the expression levels of fibrosis-associated genes in hepatocyte-specific ATG7-deficient mice. The expression levels of the connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and phosphorylated ERK (phospho-ERK) proteins were increased significantly in primary hepatocytes isolated from hepatocyte-specific ATG7-deficient mice compared to those isolated from control mice. In addition, the inhibition of autophagy in cultured mammalian hepatic AML12 and LX2 cells increased CTGF and phospho-ERK protein levels without altering CTGF mRNA expression. In addition, the autophagy deficiency-mediated enhancement of CTGF expression was attenuated when ERK was inhibited. Overall, these results suggest that the inhibition of autophagy in hepatocytes increases phospho-ERK expression, which in turn increases the expression of CTGF, a biomarker of fibrosis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cells11172704","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,30]],"date-time":"2022-08-30T21:25:18Z","timestamp":1661894718000},"page":"2704","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Increased Levels of Phosphorylated ERK Induce CTGF Expression in Autophagy-Deficient Mouse Hepatocytes"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Hye-Young","family":"Seo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"},{"name":"Institute for Medical Science, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"So-Hee","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"},{"name":"Institute for Medical Science, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3237-3317","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eugene","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"},{"name":"Institute for Medical Science, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jae Seok","family":"Hwang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5750-3598","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mi Kyung","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"},{"name":"Institute for Medical Science, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8950-0866","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Byoung Kuk","family":"Jang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"},{"name":"Institute for Medical Science, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 42601, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S24","DOI":"10.1186\/1755-1536-5-S1-S24","article-title":"CTGF is a central mediator of tissue remodeling and fibrosis and its inhibition can reverse the process of fibrosis","volume":"5","author":"Lipson","year":"2012","journal-title":"Fibrogenesis Tissue Repair"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"1065","article-title":"Connective tissue growth factor: A fibrogenic master switch in fibrotic liver diseases","volume":"28","author":"Gressner","year":"2008","journal-title":"Liver Int. 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