Figure 7.

Scheme of PNPLA3 I148M‐related inflammatory signalling in HepG2 treated with PA. PNPLA3 gene is transcriptionally up‐regulated by NF‐kB during long‐term PA treatment. The distribution of wild‐type and mutant PNPLA3 proteins is different: I148M mutant proteins are distributed in lipid droplets, while wild‐type proteins are distributed in the cytoplasm. PNPLA3 I148M protein then activates the IRE1a signalling of ER stress, followed by phosphorylating JNK1/2 and up‐regulating c‐Jun expression, which finally up‐regulates c‐Jun‐dependent expression of inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF‐α