Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by an accumulation of fat in the liver, irrespective of excessive alcohol consumption. The advanced stage of this disease is called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
In this study, changes in the gut microbiota associated with progression from NAFLD to NASH were analyzed with the aim of better understanding the differences between the microbiota of patients with NAFLD and NASH.
Gut microbiota composition was compared in three groups, healthy controls, NAFLD patients and NASH patients. It was collected using the rRNA sequencing technique on participants recruited from the Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital who provided stool samples.
A significant decrease in the diversity of intestinal flora was observed in patients with NAFLD and NASH, with a higher abundance of "Bacteroidetes" and "Fusobacteria". Conversely, a lower abundance of "Firmicutes" was found in these patients.
A significant decrease in "Prevotella" was observed in NAFLD patients, while an increase in "Megamonas" and "Fusobacterium" was noted in NASH patients.
This study highlights the important changes in gut microbiota composition in the progression from NAFLD to NASH. It proposes solutions that could facilitate the discovery of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets to combat NAFLD.
In conclusion, the authors of this study suggest that microbiome-based interventions could be developed to prevent or treat this disease non-invasively.
Source(s) :
Huang, F., Lyu, B., Xie, F., Li, F., Xing, Y., Han, Z., Lai, J., Ma, J., Zou, Y., Zeng, H., Xu, Z., Gao, P., Luo, Y., Bolund, L., Tong, G., & Fengping, X. (2024). From gut to liver: unveiling the differences of intestinal microbiota in NAFL and NASH patie ;
