Gut microbe may improve fatty liver
Due to the central role of liver in the whole body metabolism, fatty liver is a major health problem. In Finland alone, it affects around 1,000,000 people of the general population and has an occurrence of 90% among obese individuals. Humans with high liver fat content had less F. prausnitzii and more inflammation in the subcutaneous adipose tissue. The researchers, therefore, decided to study whether oral F. prausnitzii treatment would decrease hepatic fat content in high-fat fed mice that serve as a model for fatty liver. The results were very promising. Compared to the high-fat control mice, F. prausnitzii-treated mice had lower hepatic fat content, AST and ALT, as well as increased fatty-acid oxidation. In addition, hepatic lipidomic analyses revealed decreases in several species of triacylglycerols , phospholipids and cholesteryl esters. Expression of adiponectin, which is one of the main beneficial mediators of metabolism, was increased in the visceral adipose tissue. While ...