Gut microbiome altered in primary sclerosing cholangitis

Reuters Health - 11/01/2021 - The gut microbiomes of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) show major functional differences from those of healthy controls (HCs), new findings show. Individuals with PSC had fewer genes involved in synthesis of B vitamins and branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), and lower serum levels of vitamin B6 and BCAAs, which were associated with worse liver transplant-free survival, Dr. Johannes R. Hov of the Norwegian PSC Research Center at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet and colleagues found. Previous cross-sectional studies found differences in the composition of the fecal bacterial microbiome in PSC patients compared with healthy individuals, Dr. Hov and his team note. "Overall, both human and experimental evidence suggest that gut microbes may act as disease modifiers in PSC," they write in Gastroenterology. "The mechanisms underlying these effects are so far not known, but current data suggest that altered bile...

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Posted on 11 January, 202115 January, 2021