Abstract
BackgroundHuman gut microbiota plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cirrhosis complications. Although the phylogenetic diversity of intestinal microbiota in patients with liver cirrhosis has been examined in several studies, little is known about their functional composition and structure.ResultsTo characterize the functional gene diversity of the gut microbiome in cirrhotic patients, we recruited a total of 42 individuals, 12 alcoholic cirrhosis patients, 18 hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhosis patients, and 12 normal controls. We determined the functional structure of these samples using a specific functional gene array, which is a combination of GeoChip for monitoring biogeochemical processes and HuMiChip specifically designed for analyzing human microbiomes. Our experimental data showed that the microbial community functional composition and structure were dramatically distinctive in the alcoholic cirrhosis. Various microbial functional genes involved in organic remediation, stress response, antibiotic resistance, metal resistance, and virulence were highly enriched in the alcoholic cirrhosis group compared to the control group and HBV-related cirrhosis group. Cirrhosis may have distinct influences on metabolic potential of fecal microbial communities. The abundance of functional genes relevant to nutrient metabolism, including amino acid metabolism, lipid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and isoprenoid biosynthesis, were significantly decreased in both alcoholic cirrhosis group and HBV-related cirrhosis group. Significant correlations were observed between functional gene abundances and Child-Pugh scores, such as those encoding aspartate-ammonia ligase, transaldolase, adenylosuccinate synthetase and IMP dehydrogenase.ConclusionsFunctional gene array was utilized to study the gut microbiome in alcoholic and HBV-related cirrhosis patients and controls in this study. Our array data indicated that the functional composition of fecal microbiomes was heavily influenced by cirrhosis, especially by alcoholic cirrhosis. This study provides new insights into the functional potentials and activity of gut microbiota in cirrhotic patients with different etiologies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-753) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Human gut microbiota plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cirrhosis complications
Overview of functional gene diversity and structure of fecal microbial communities Based on all detected functional genes, the community diversity was assessed by richness, Shannon-Weiner (H’) and Simpson’s (1/D) indices (Figure 1)
The number of probes detected was significantly (p < 0.01) higher in alcoholic cirrhosis (ALC) than in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhosis (HBC) and controls (CT), while there was no significant difference between the HBC and CT groups
Summary
Human gut microbiota plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cirrhosis complications. The phylogenetic diversity of intestinal microbiota in patients with liver cirrhosis has been examined in several studies, little is known about their functional composition and structure. The gastrointestinal tract harbors a complex and diverse microbial community, which plays important roles in host nutrition, immune function, health and disease. Increasing evidence suggests that dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota plays important roles in the pathogenesis of complications of cirrhosis, such as spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, and cirrhosis has been revealed using shotgun metagenomic sequencing [5]. Several studies have described changes in the gene content of the gut microbiome across health and disease [9,10,11]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
