Shao JW, Ge TT, Chen SZ, Wang G, Yang Q, Huang CH, Xu LC, Chen Z. Role of bile acids in liver diseases mediated by the gut microbiome. World J Gastroenterol 2021; 27(22): 3010-3021 [PMID: 34168404 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i22.3010]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zhi Chen, MD, PhD, Professor, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 79 Qingchun Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. zjuchenzhi@zju.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Food Science & Technology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Jun-Wei Shao, Tian-Tian Ge, Sen-Zhong Chen, Gang Wang, Qin Yang, Chun-Hong Huang, Li-Chen Xu, Zhi Chen, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Chen Z, Shao JW and Ge TT carried out the concepts and designed the definition of intellectual content; Shao JW, Chen SZ and Yang Q carried out the literature search and manuscript editing. Wang G, Huang CH and Xu LC performed manuscript review; All authors have read and approved the content of the manuscript.
Supported byNational Science and Technology Major Project of China, No. 2018ZX10302206.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi Chen, MD, PhD, Professor, State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 79 Qingchun Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. zjuchenzhi@zju.edu.cn
Received: November 14, 2020 Peer-review started: November 14, 2020 First decision: February 28, 2021 Revised: March 8, 2021 Accepted: April 26, 2021 Article in press: April 26, 2021 Published online: June 14, 2021
Abstract
The intensive crosstalk between the liver and the intestine performs many essential functions. This crosstalk is important for natural immune surveillance, adaptive immune response regulation and nutrient metabolism and elimination of toxic bacterial metabolites. The interaction between the gut microbiome and bile acids is bidirectional. The gut microbiome regulates the synthesis of bile acids and their biological signaling activity and circulation via enzymes. Similarly, bile acids also shape the composition of the gut microbiome by modulating the host’s natural antibacterial defense and the intestinal immune system. The interaction between bile acids and the gut microbiome has been implicated in the pathophysiology of many intestinal and extra intestinal diseases, especially liver diseases. As essential mediators of the gut-liver crosstalk, bile acids regulate specific host metabolic pathways and modulate the inflammatory responses through farnesoid X-activated receptor and G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1. Several clinical trials have demonstrated the signaling effects of bile acids in the context of liver diseases. We hypothesize the existence of a gut microbiome-bile acids-liver triangle and explore the potential therapeutic strategies for liver diseases targeting the triangle.
Core Tip: This review explores the interaction between the gut microbiome, bile acids and liver disease. Bile acids are involved in liver immune and inflammatory responses via the membrane receptor G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 and the intracellular farnesoid-X receptor. The interaction between the gut microbiome and bile acids can control host immunological homeostasis and inhibit liver inflammation.
