Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) is an unsettled and intractable conundrum in clinical treatment after liver transplantation and resection. Cellular communication network factor 1 (CCN1) is upregulated in liver IRI and may play a key role in this process. The objective of this study is to investigate the regulatory mechanism of CCN1 in liver IRI, which may provide new insight into liver IRI clinical treatment.

The hepatic ischemia/reperfusion model was established in male C57BL/6 mice by occlusion of vessels in the liver followed by reperfusion. The mice were transfected with two small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) against CCN1 for CCN1 knockdown. The hypoxia/reoxygenation (HR) model was established in vitro using mouse hepatic cells followed by transfection with a siRNA and treatment with an ERK activator TPA to confirm the effects of CCN1 on the MEK/ERK pathway in liver IRI.

In hepatic IRI, CCN1 was upregulated and its knockdown reduced alanine aminotransferase and aspartate transaminase levels, myeloperoxidase activity, and the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α. CCN1 downregulation alleviated inflammatory cell infiltration and apoptosis in the liver. The expressions of cleaved caspase-9, cleaved caspase-3, Bax, and CHOP were decreased with an increased Bcl-2 level after CCN1 knockdown. The phosphorylation and activation of proteins in ER stress and MEK/ERK pathway were inhibited by CCN1 knockdown. In vitro, the levels of proinflammatory cytokines, apoptosis-inducing proteins, and proteins in ER stress and MEK/ERK pathway, which were decreased by CCN1 knockdown in HR, were restored by TPA, confirming that the activation of ERK aggravated cell apoptosis after reoxygenation.

Overall, CCN1 knockdown may suppress the inflammation, apoptosis during hepatic IRI by reducing the MEK/ERK pathway activation, which may be a breakthrough point in clinical alleviation of hepatic IRI caused by liver transplantation and resection.