Gut Microbiota and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Insights on Mechanisms and Therapy

Abstract

The gut microbiota plays critical roles in development of obese-related metabolic diseases such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), type 2 diabetes(T2D), and insulin resistance(IR), highlighting the potential of gut microbiota-targeted therapies in these diseases. There are various ways that gut microbiota can be manipulated, including through use of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, antibiotics, and some active components from herbal medicines. In this review, we review the main roles of gut microbiota in mediating the development of NAFLD, and the advances in gut microbiota-targeted therapies for NAFLD in both the experimental and clinical studies, as well as the conclusions on the prospect of gut microbiota-targeted therapies in the future.

Keywords: NAFLD; gut microbiota; insulin resistance; obesity; prebiotic; probiotic; symbiotic.

Figure 1

Schematic view on roles of gut microbiota in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease [2,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60]. NAFLD: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; LPS: lipopolysaccharides; LBP: LPS binding protein; SCFAs: short chain fatty acids; BA:Bile acid; TNF-α: tumor-necrosis factor alpha; TLR: Toll like receptor; CD14: monocyte differentiation antigen; UBA: unconjugated bile acid; ZO-1\Occludin: two tight junction proteins; FIAF: Fasting-induced adipocyte factor; NF-kB: Nuclear factor-κB; MyD88: myeloid differentiation factor 88; FXR: farnesoid X receptor; TGR5: Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5; TMA: trimethylamine; TMAO: trimethylamine oxide; IR: Insulin resistance; IRS: Insulin receptor substrate; FFA: free fatty acid; LPL: lipoprteinlipase.