Gut microbiota and liver diseases

Table 5 Randomized controlled trials for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

Ref.	Year	Sample size (treatment/placebo)	Treatment regimens	Duration	Favorable effects	Other information
1Aller et al[90]	2011	28 (14/14)	Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophiles vs placebo	3 mo	ALT ↓	Cardiovascular risk factors: NS
1Vajro et al[91]	2011	20 (10/10)	Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain GG vs placebo	8 wk	ALT ↓	Hepatorenal US ratio: NS
					PG-PS IgA ↓
1Malaguarnera et al[92]	2012	66 (34/32)	Bifidobacterium longum with fructo-oligosaccharides vs placebo	24 wk	ALT ↓ CRP ↓ TNF-α↓
					LDL-cholesterol ↓
					Serum endotoxin ↓
					HOMA-IR↓ Steatosis ↓
					NASH activity index ↓
1Wong et al[93]	2013	20 (10/10)	Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus deslbrueckii, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium bifidum (The Lepicol probiotic formula) vs usual care	6 mo	AST ↓
					Liver fat (IHTG) ↓

¹RCTs included in meta-analysis by Ma et al[94]. PG-PS: Peptidoglycan-polysaccharide; IHTG: Intrahepatic triglyceride content; NASH: Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; NS: Not significant.