Gut microbiota of liver transplantation recipients

Li-Ying Sun,Zhi-Sheng Ye,Wei Qu,Lin Wei,Zhi-Gui Zeng,Xiao-Ye Sun,Jian-Rui Zhang,Zhi-Jun Zhu,Yun-Sheng Yang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03476-4

Abstract

The characteristics of intestinal microbial communities may be affected by changes in the pathophysiology of patients with end-stage liver disease. Here, we focused on the characteristics of intestinal fecal microbial communities in post-liver transplantation (LT) patients in comparison with those in the same individuals pre-LT and in healthy individuals. The fecal microbial communities were analyzed via MiSeq-PE250 sequencing of the V4 region of 16S ribosomal RNA and were then compared between groups. We found that the gut microbiota of patients with severe liver disease who were awaiting LT was significantly different from that of healthy controls, as represented by the first principal component (p = 0.0066). Additionally, the second principal component represented a significant difference in the gut microbiota of patients between pre-LT and post-LT surgery (p = 0.03125). After LT, there was a significant decrease in the abundance of certain microbial species, such as Actinobacillus, Escherichia, and Shigella, and a significant increase in the abundance of other microbial species, such as Micromonosporaceae, Desulfobacterales, the Sarcina genus of Eubacteriaceae, and Akkermansia. Based on KEGG profiles, 15 functional modules were enriched and 21 functional modules were less represented in the post-LT samples compared with the pre-LT samples. Our study demonstrates that fecal microbial communities were significantly altered by LT.

Highlights

With the development of sequencing techniques, accumulating research on the connection between the human gut microbiota and disease has been conducted
Using MiSeq-PE250 sequencing technology combined with bioinformatics analysis, we studied the characteristics of the intestinal microbiota from patients with end-stage liver disease before and after they received liver transplantation (LT)
The purpose of this study was to analyze the differences in the intestinal microflora of patients between pre-LT and post-LT to investigate the effect of LT therapy and subsequent immunosuppressive treatment on the intestinal microflora, thereby providing experimental data further revealing the mechanism by which liver diseases alter the gut microbiota

Summary

Introduction

With the development of sequencing techniques, accumulating research on the connection between the human gut microbiota and disease has been conducted. This research includes studies on the association of gut microbiota alterations with liver diseases, such as obesity-related liver disease[1], non-alcoholic fatty liver disease[2, 3], autoimmune liver disease[4], and liver cirrhosis[5, 6]. No study has reported on the differences in the intestinal microbiota of patients who received LT, as measured using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequencing technology. Using MiSeq-PE250 sequencing technology combined with bioinformatics analysis, we studied the characteristics of the intestinal microbiota from patients with end-stage liver disease before and after they received LT. The purpose of this study was to analyze the differences in the intestinal microflora of patients between pre-LT and post-LT to investigate the effect of LT therapy and subsequent immunosuppressive treatment on the intestinal microflora, thereby providing experimental data further revealing the mechanism by which liver diseases alter the gut microbiota

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Conclusion