Abstract
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been linked to altered gut microbiome; however, evidence from large population-based studies is limited. We compared gut microbiome profiles of 188 male and 233 female NAFLD cases with 571 male and 567 female controls from two longitudinal studies of urban Chinese adults. History of NAFLD was assessed during surveys administered in 2004–2017. Microbiota were assessed using 16S rRNA sequencing of stool samples collected in 2015–2018. Associations of NAFLD with microbiome diversity and composition were evaluated by generalized linear or logistic regression models. Compared with controls, male cases had lower microbial α-diversity, higher abundance of genera Dialister and Streptococcus and Bifidobacterium species, lower abundance of genus Phascolarctobacterium, and lower prevalence of taxa including order RF39 (all p < 0.05). In contrast, female cases had higher α-diversity, higher abundance of genus Butyricimonas and a family of order Clostridiales, lower abundance of Dialister and Bifidobacterium species, and higher prevalence of RF39. Significant NAFLD–sex interactions were found for α-diversity and above taxa (all false discovery rate < 0.1). In conclusion, we observed sex-specific gut microbiome features related to history of NAFLD. Further studies are needed to validate our findings and evaluate the health effects of NAFLD-related gut microbiota.
Highlights
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a highly prevalent metabolic disease, defined as ≥5% hepatic steatosis, not caused by excessive alcohol consumption or other secondary conditions such as viral hepatitis or hereditary liver diseases [1]
Participants of this study were selected from two population-based cohort studies, the Shanghai Women’s Health Study (SWHS) and Shanghai Men’s Health Study (SMHS)
We evaluated further the sex-specific NAFLD–microbiome associations by age, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), healthy diet score, and history of hypertension (Supplementary Table S4)
Summary
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a highly prevalent metabolic disease, defined as ≥5% hepatic steatosis, not caused by excessive alcohol consumption or other secondary conditions such as viral hepatitis or hereditary liver diseases [1]. We used resources from two large prospective cohorts of middleaged to older urban Chinese adults and compared gut microbial diversity and taxonomic composition among over 1500 adults with or without a history of NAFLD. Such comparisons may help better understand the gut–liver axis and identify potentially important gut bacteria that may play a role in NAFLD development and progression, and offer innovative options for prevention and treatment of this leading liver disease
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