Association between the gut microbiota and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study

Background: Increasing studies have shown that there is a significant association between gut microbiota and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.Aims: To show the potential association between gut microbiota and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, we performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.Methods: We analyzed summary statistics from genome-wide association studies of gut microbiota and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and conducted Mendelian randomization studies to evaluate relationships between these factors.Results: Of the 211 gut microbiota taxa examined, the inverse variance weighted method identified Lactobacillaceae (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.72 - 0.95, P = 0.007), Christensenellaceae (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.59 - 0.92, P = 0.007), and Intestinibacter (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.73 - 0.99, P = 0.035) were negatively correlated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. And Coriobacteriia (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.01 - 1.42, P = 0.038), Actinomycetales (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.02 - 1.53, P = 0.031), Oxalobacteraceae (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.01 - 1.21, P = 0.036), Ruminococcaceae_UCG005 (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.01 - 1.38, P = 0.033) are positively associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Conclusions: Our study found that the abundance of certain strains was associated with the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.(c) 2023 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.