School of Life Sciences, Probiotics and Biological Feed Research Centre, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China.
Department of Microbiology, Balochistan University of Information Technology Engineering & Management Sciences Quetta 87300, Pakistan.
Int J Biol Sci. 2021 Feb 8;17(3):818-833. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.56214. eCollection 2021.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is leading chronic liver syndrome worldwide. Gut microbiota dysbiosis significantly contributes to the pathogenesis and severity of NAFLD. However, its role is complex and even unclear. Treatment of NAFLD through chemotherapeutic agents have been questioned because of their side effects on health. In this review, we highlighted and discussed the current understanding on the importance of gut microbiota, its dysbiosis and its effects on the gut-liver axis and gut mucosa. Further, we discussed key mechanisms involved in gut dysbiosis to provide an outline of its role in progression to NAFLD and liver cirrhosis. In addition, we also explored the potential role of probiotics as a treatment approach for the prevention and treatment of NAFLD. Based on the latest findings, it is evident that microbiota targeted interventions mostly the use of probiotics have shown promising effects and can possibly alleviate the gut microbiota dysbiosis, regulate the metabolic pathways which in turn inhibit the progression of NAFLD through the gut-liver axis. However, very limited studies in humans are available on this issue and suggest further research work to identify a specific core microbiome association with NAFLD and to discover its mechanism of pathogenesis, which will help to enhance the therapeutic potential of probiotics to NAFLD.
非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）是全球主要的慢性肝脏综合征。肠道微生物失调显著促进了 NAFLD 的发病机制和严重程度。然而，其作用是复杂的，甚至不清楚。由于对健康的副作用，通过化疗药物治疗 NAFLD 受到了质疑。在这篇综述中，我们强调并讨论了目前对肠道微生物群的重要性、其失调及其对肠道-肝脏轴和肠道黏膜的影响的理解。此外，我们还讨论了涉及肠道失调的关键机制，为其在进展为 NAFLD 和肝硬化中的作用提供了一个概述。此外，我们还探讨了益生菌作为预防和治疗 NAFLD 的治疗方法的潜在作用。基于最新的发现，很明显，针对微生物组的干预措施，主要是使用益生菌，已经显示出了有希望的效果，并且可能通过肠道-肝脏轴缓解肠道微生物失调，调节代谢途径，从而抑制 NAFLD 的进展。然而，关于这个问题，人类的研究非常有限，这表明需要进一步的研究工作来确定与 NAFLD 相关的特定核心微生物组，并发现其发病机制，这将有助于提高益生菌对 NAFLD 的治疗潜力。
