Diversity and Comparison of Intestinal Desulfovibrio in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis and Healthy People

Desulfovibrio belongs to Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), which are widely present in anaerobic environments, including the human gut. Desulfovibrio has been associated with many human diseases, including chronic liver disease. However, the characteristics and difference of Desulfovibrio from fecal samples of healthy volunteers (HV) and patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) have not been fully elucidated. Here, we isolated Desulfovibrio from the feces of 6 HV and 9 LC, and 88 Desulfovibrio strains were obtained. In the feces of HV, 55% of isolated strains were D. desulfuricans, followed by D. intestinalis (15%), D. simplex (11%), D. piger (9%), D. legallii (4%), Cupidesulfovibrio oxamicus (4%) and D. fairfieldensis (2%). However, only D. desulfuricans (60%) and C. oxamicus (40%) were isolated from fecal samples of patients with LC. Our results suggest that there was a significant difference in the desulfurization ability and the H2S production ability of different Desulfovibrio. Desulfovibrio. Furthermore, we found that Desulfovibrio isolated from the patients with LC generally had a higher hydrogen sulfide production capacity, gastrointestinal tolerance, and levels of antibiotic resistance than the same species isolated from HV. Our findings suggested that Desulfovibrio may be associated with the occurrence and development of liver cirrhosis.