Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) can improve the
liver fibrosis and reduce
inflammation, while the role of Tβ4 in
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (
NAFLD) whether mediated by ferroptosis remains unclear. A rat model of
NAFLD was established on a high-fat diet (HFD), and rats were assigned ferroptosis inducer
erastin and inhibitor Ferrostatin 1 (Fer-1). Subsequently, histopathology of the liver and the expression of ferroptosis-related genes in rat liver were detected. The steatosis of LO2 cells was induced by
palmitic acid (PA) to reproduce the results of the rat experiment. The
small interfering RNA (
siRNA) was used to interfere with GPX4 expression to explore the influence on Tβ4 function. Tβ4 improved the
inflammation, biochemical and lipid metabolism indexes, increased the
antioxidant level, and inhibited abnormal accumulation of intracellular
reactive oxygen species in HFD-induced
NAFLD rats. Also, Tβ4 improved PA-induced LO2 damage and inhibited apoptosis of PA-induced LO2 cells. Both in vivo and in vitro, Tβ4 regulated expression of genes associated with ferroptosis, and Fer-1 treatment exaggerated the above effects of Tβ4, while
erastin attenuated the protective effect of Tβ4. Moreover,
siRNA GPX4 attenuated the protective effect of Tβ4 on the rat liver and on the mitochondrial membrane integrity of LO2 cells. Interfered expression of GPX4 with
siRNA also regulated the expression of Bcl-2, Bax,
Caspase-3 and SOD1, which attenuated
therapeutic effect of Tβ4 on rat liver and LO2 cells. This study revealed that Tβ4 protects hepatocytes by inhibiting the GPX4-mediated ferroptosis pathway, which provides a new strategy and target for the treatment of
NAFLD.