Characteristics of gut microbiota in patients with metabolic associated fatty liver disease

Metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is rising in incidence and is an increasingly common cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Alterations in the gut microbiota have been shown to correlate with the development and progression of MAFLD. However, little is known regarding differences in the gut microbiomes of MAFLD patients and healthy cohorts, and subgroups at the abnormal activity of hepatic enzymes in China. In this study, we enrolled 81 MAFLD patients and 25 healthy volunteers. The fecal microbiota was assessed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenomic sequencing. The results suggested that Ruminococcus obeum and Alistipes were most enriched in healthy individuals when compared with MAFLD patients. Microbe‐set Enrichment Analysis (MSEA) results showed Dorea, Lactobacillus and Megasphaera are enriched in MAFLD group. We also found that Alistipes has negatively related to serum glucose (GLU), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Moreover, the abundance of Dorea was found to be significantly overrepresented in the MAFLD patients and the degree of enrichment increased with the increasing abnormal liver enzyme. An increase in Dorea, combined with decreases in Alistipes appears to be characteristic of MAFLD patients. Further study of microbiota may provide a novel insight into the pathogenesis of MAFLD as well as a novel treatment strategy.