Research

Hormonal

Dietary supplementation with Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) attenuates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and fibrosis by suppressing Betacellulin (BTC) expression, thereby inhibiting the BTC-EGFR-ERBB pathway, reducing hepatic stellate cell proliferation, and lowering TGFβ-2-mediated collagen production.

If you are managing NASH or liver health, the specific type of Omega-3 matters. Research indicates DHA is more effective than EPA at suppressing key liver damage pathways (like Betacellulin and TGFβ-2). While this study is in mice, it suggests prioritizing DHA-rich sources or supplements over generic Omega-3 blends for liver-specific benefits.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Strikingly, these pathogenic processes were attenuated by DHA and to a much lesser degree by EPA... Together, our results suggest that inhibition of BTC by DHA is a key mechanism behind its beneficial effects on liver health... Strikingly, TGFB2 was the only gene found in common across several enriched categories... expression of TGFB2, but not TGFB1 was increased by BTC in vitro... repressed by DHA in both prevention and treatment mouse studies
Jyothi Padiadpu et al. · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2022

Why this rating

Evidence is derived from preclinical mouse models (Ldlr -/-) and in vitro cell lines (LX2), not human clinical trials.

Source

Multi-omic network analysis identified betacellulin as a novel target of omega-3 fatty acid attenuation of western diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Jyothi Padiadpu et al. · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2022

DOI 10.1101/2022.10.03.510635

Meta-analysis · 7 studiesCited 1×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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