Abnormalities of Glucose Homeostasis Occurring as a Complication of Liver Cirrhosis---The Role of Gut Microbiota

There is an increased incidence of cirrhosis in diabetic patients, and, conversely, at least 80% of patients with cirrhosis have glucose intolerance. The pathogenesis of the proposed insulin resistance is not known. One of the potential mechanisms is the intestinal microbiota. In the fist part of this project, we will use multi-tagged pyrosequencing to analyze the microbiota during bile duct ligation. The temporal change of liver fibrosis, intestinal permeability, bacterial translocation, serum endotoxemia, and relative abundance of bacteria will be determined. Microbiota transplantation will be performed by oral gavage of cecum content obtained from BDL mice to investigate the relationship of microbiota on glucose metabolism and liver damage. In the second part of this study, we will modulate the intestinal microbiota by probiotics and analyze the effect on liver fibrosis, intestinal permeability, bacterial translocation, serum endotoxemia, and relative abundance of bacteria. We then transfer the gut microbiota from probiotics treated BDL mice to investigate the glucose metabolism and liver damage. Our aim is to clarify the currently described effects of probiotics in the prevention and management of glucose intolerance occurring in liver cirrhosis condition.

Project ID:PC10408-1904
External Project ID:MOST104-2314-B182-011