Discovery of cytoglobin and its roles in physiology and pathology of hepatic stellate cells

Cytoglobin (CYGB), a new member of the globin family, was discovered in 2001 as a protein associated with stellate cell activation (stellate cell activation-associated protein [STAP]). Knowledge of CYGB, including its crystal, gene, and protein structures as well as its physiological and pathological importance, has increased progressively. We investigated the roles of oxygen (O2)-binding CYGB as STAP in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) to understand the part played by this protein in their pathophysiological activities. Studies involving CYGB-gene-deleted mice have led us to suppose that CYGB functions as a regulator of O2 homeostasis; when O2 homeostasis is disrupted, HSCs are activated and play a key role(s) in hepatic fibrogenesis. In this review, we discuss the rationale for this hypothesis.