Firmicutes and Blautia in gut microbiota lessened in chronic liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma patients: a pilot study

ABSTRACT

The gut microbiota system plays a vital role in liver diseases. This study aimed to address the diversity of gut microbiota and its correlations with clinical parameters in healthy individuals, chronic liver disease (CLD), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Fecal specimens of nine healthy individuals, 11 CLD, and 21 HCC were collected. The diversity of gut microbiota was examined by PCR and Illumina MiSeq sequencing and analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing database. The correlations between gut microbiota and the clinical parameters of participants were also addressed. Compared to healthy individuals, Firmicutes at a phylum level decreased in CLD and HCC patients and Proteobacteria increased (p < 0.05). The composition of Blautia on a genus level in CLD and HCC patients significantly decreased compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). Firmicutes composition was negatively associated with age and number of males (p < 0.05) and was positively associated with monocytes, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) levels (p < 0.05). At a genus level, Blautia composition was negatively associated with cirrhosis, age, and number of males (p < 0.01), while it was positively associated with red blood cells (RBCs), triglycerides, HDL-C, and lymphocyte levels (p < 0.05). Conclusively, there was a significant compositional difference in gut microbiota in CLD and HCC patients compared with healthy subjects. Firmicutes and Blautia in gut microbiota system lessened in CLD and HCC patients. Clinical biochemical parameters have an impact on the diversity of gut microbiota in liver diseases.

KEYWORDS:

• Gut microbiota
• liver disease
• hepatocellular carcinoma
• Firmicutes
• Blautia

Highlights

• The gut microbiota changed as the liver disease developed.

• There was a significant compositional difference in gut microbiota in CLD and HCC patients compared with healthy subjects.

• Firmicutes and Blautia lessened in CLD and HCC patients.

• The composition of gut microbiota is influenced by multiple clinicopathological factors.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no conflicts of interest in this work.

Data availability

All the datasets were available from the corresponding author (Z. Yang) with reasonable request.

Authors’ contribution

Tianyou Chen and Rongrong Ding have contributed equally to this work.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Medical Guidance Project of the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee[grant number 19401931600]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.