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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2015; 21(41): 11597-11608
Published online Nov 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i41.11597
Gut microbiota and host metabolism in liver cirrhosis
Makoto Usami, Makoto Miyoshi, Hayato Yamashita
Makoto Usami, Makoto Miyoshi, Hayato Yamashita, Division of Nutrition and Metabolism, Department of Biophysics, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe 654-0142, Japan
Makoto Usami, Department of Nutrition, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe University School of Medicine, Kobe 650-0017, Japan
Author contributions: Usami M, Miyoshi M and Yamashita H contributed to this manuscript equally.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicting financial interests exist.
Open-Access: 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/
Correspondence to: Makoto Usami, MD, PhD, Division of Nutrition and Metabolism, Department of Biophysics, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, 7-10-2 Tomogaoka, Suma-ku, Kobe 654-0142, Japan. musa@kobe-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-78-7964591 Fax: +81-78-7964509
Received: June 16, 2015
Peer-review started: June 19, 2015
First decision: July 20, 2015
Revised: August 6, 2015
Accepted: September 30, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: November 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: The gut microbiota has the capacity to produce a diverse range of compounds that have a major role in regulating the activity of distal organs and the liver is strategically positioned downstream of the gut indicating the importance of the gut-liver axis. This review focuses on gut microbiota and host metabolism in liver cirrhosis. The serum lipid levels of phospholipids, free fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid, arachidonic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid have significant correlations with specific fecal flora in liver cirrhosis. Various blood metabolome such as cytokines, amino acids, and vitamins are correlated with gut microbiota in probiotics-treated liver cirrhosis patients.