Impact of Probiotics in NAFLD in Mice with Western Diet = Impact of Probiotics in NAFLD in Mice with Western Diet

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common and increasing liver diseases worldwide. However, definitive medical treatment has not been established with the exception of lifestyle modification. Probiotics can be used as a promising mediation targeting gut-liver axis in NAFLD. The aim of study was to evaluate the impact of some strains in Western diet induced NAFLD mice model.
Methods: We used 6-week aged C57BL/6 mouse and mice were divided into 8 groups (n=10/group; normal diet group, Western diet for 8 weeks group, and 6 Western diet with probiotics administration groups [10⁹ CFU/g, for 8 weeks]). Used probiotics strains are Lactobacillus reuteri, L. salivarius, L. gasseri, Bifidobacterium lactis, B. breve, and B. longum. We compared liver/body weight ratio, histology (fatty liver and hepatitis), liver enzymes (AST, ALT, and bilirubin), and cholesterol.
Results: In the analysis of liver/body weight ratio, L. salivarius (5.73±0.52, P=0.028), B. breve (5.27±0.47, P=0.001), and B. longum (4.85±0.57, P<0.001) groups showed significant improvement compared with that of Western group (6.33±0.63). In comparison of histology (fatty liver score/ hepatitis score), L. salivarius (1.9±0.3/1.0±0.0, P<0.001), B. breve (1.2±0.7/0.9±0.6, P<0.001), L. gasseri (1.9±0.3/1.0±0.3, P<0.001), B. lactis (2.1±0.3/1.2±0.4, P<0.001), and B. longum (1.2±0.4/0.8±0.4, P<0.001) groups reveled significant improvement compared with that of Western group (3.0±0.4/1.9±0.3). Especially, B. breve and B. longum showed liver histology like that of normal control. All strains are effective in improvement of liver enzyme (ASTT or ALT, P<0.05). In case of B. longum, mean cholesterol level was significantly decreased after administration of B. longum (0.9±0.5/0.3±0.2, P<0.001)
Conclusions: Gut-liver axis plays an important role in the NAFLD and probiotics effectively reduce inflammation and steatosis of the liver in NAFLD. In addition, B. longum can be used in the treatment of dyslipidemia.