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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects around a quarter of the adult population in the world
Beijing, China | Xinhua | A study by Chinese scientists and their German counterparts has revealed that microbes in one’s gut can be used as risk indicators for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
NAFLD, in which fat builds up in the liver due to factors other than alcohol, affects around a quarter of the adult population in the world, and its cause remains unknown.
Scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital and Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology-Hans Knoll Institute identified reliable, microbiome markers for the early detection of NAFLD.
They evaluated 2,487 individuals in a Shanghai community-based cohort who were followed up 4.6 years after initial clinical examination and biospecimen sampling, according to the study published recently in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
During this study, stool and serum samples were taken from 90 participants who afterward progressed to NAFLD and 90 controls who remained NAFLD free at the follow-up visit.
They found that the case group and control group differed in the abundances of specific microbe colony, and differed in the abundances of specific functional pathways. A total of eight genera and 21 species were significantly different in abundance between the two groups, according to the study.
A bacterial genus called Slackia is found more abundant in case group than in controls. The bacteria were previously reported more abundant in individuals with moderate-to-severe fibrosis than in individuals with absent-to-mild fibrosis.
They also identified 19 molecular pathways significantly different in abundance between the two groups.
The findings hint at the potential of using gut microbiota for early clinical warning of non-invasive NAFLD and open a window of opportunities for novel microbiome-based interventions for NAFLD treatment, the researchers said.
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Xinhua
