Gut microbiota in liver disease: Too much is harmful, nothing at all is not helpful either.

Gut microbiota in liver disease: Too much is harmful, nothing at all is not helpful either. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2019 Feb 15;: Authors: Hartmann P, Chu H, Duan Y, Schnabl B Abstract The intestinal microbiome plays an major role in the pathogenesis of liver disease, with a hallmark event being dysbiosis, or an imbalance of pathobionts and beneficial bacteria with the associated deleterious effects on its host. Reducing the number of intestinal bacteria with antibiotic treatment is generally advantageous in experimental liver diseases. Complete absence of intestinal microbiota as in germ-free rodents can be protective in autoimmune hepatitis, and hepatic tumors induced by chemicals; or it can exacerbate disease as in acute toxic liver injury and liver fibrosis/cirrhosis. In alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and autoimmune cholangiopathies, germ-free status can be associated with worsened or improved hepatic phenotype depending on the experimental model and type of rodent. Some of the unexpected outcomes can be explained by limitations of a rodent raised in a germ-free environment including a deficient immune system, an altered metabolism of lipids, cholesterol, xenobiotics/toxins and bile acids. Given these limitations and to advance the understanding of the interactions between host and intestinal microbiota, simplified model systems such as humanized gnotobiotic mice, or gnotobioti...
Source: Am J Physiol Gastroi... - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol Source Type: research