Dehydroepiandrosterone reduced lipid droplet accumulation via inhibiting cell proliferation and improving mitochondrial function in primary chicken hepatocytes.

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) possesses fat-reducing effect, while little information is available on whether DHEA regulates cell proliferation and mitochondrial function, which would, in turn, affect lipid droplet accumulation in broiler. In this study, the lipid droplet accumulation, cell proliferation, cell cycle and mitochondrial membrane potential were analysis in primary chicken hepatocytes treated with DHEA. The results showed that total area and counts of lipid droplet were significantly decreased in hepatocytes after DHEA treated. DHEA treatment significantly increased the cell viability, while the cell proliferation was significantly inhibited in a dose dependent manner in primary chicken hepatocytes treated with DHEA. DHEA treatment significantly increased the cell population of S phase and decreased the population of G2/M in primary chicken hepatocytes. Meanwhile, the cyclin A and cyclin-dependent kinases 2 (CDK2) mRNA abundance were significantly decreased in hepatocytes after DHEA treated. No significant differences were observed on the number of mitochondria, while the mitochondrial membrane permeability and succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity were significantly increased in hepatocytes treated with DHEA. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that DHEA reduced lipid droplet accumulation by inhibiting cell proliferation and enhancing mitochondrial function in primary chicken hepatocytes.