Open AccessThe gut microbiota: A new potential driving force in liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma
Author(s) -
Sanduzzi Zamparelli Marco,
Rocco Alba,
Compare Debora,
Nardone Gerardo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
ueg journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.667
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 2050-6414
pISSN - 2050-6406
DOI - 10.1177/2050640617705576
Subject(s) - cirrhosis , hepatocellular carcinoma , gut flora , medicine , dysbiosis , liver disease , disease , chronic liver disease , liver function , gastroenterology , bioinformatics , immunology , biology
The gut microbiota has recently been recognized as a major environmental factor in the pathophysiology of many human diseases. The anatomical and function connection existing between gut and liver provides the theoretical basis to assume the liver is a major target for gut microbes. In the last decades, numerous studies reported an altered composition of gut microbiota in patients with liver cirrhosis and a progressively marked dysbiosis with worsening of the liver disease. The risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma, the deadliest complication of liver cirrhosis, is widely variable among cirrhotic patients, thus suggesting a complexity of genetic and environmental factors implicated in hepatocarcinogenesis. Gut microbiota is now emerging as a plausible candidate to explain this variability. In this manuscript we review the human and the experimental evidence supporting the potential implication of gut microbiota in the promotion, progression and complication of liver disease.