Composition of gut microbiota has recently been suggested as a key factor persuading the pathogenesis of numerous human diseases including hepatic cirrhosis. To evaluate the potential impact of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum microbiota on the progression of hepatic histopathological changes among patients with non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection with different viral load. Additionally, to assess fecal composition of Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC-4356 and Bifidobacterium bifidum ATCC-11863 microbiota genotypes This study was carried out on 40 non-cirrhotic chronically infected HCV patients, and 10 healthy-controls. Liver biopsy and HCV genomic viral load were assessed for all patients after full clinical examination. Lactobacillus acidophilus ATCC-4356 and Bifidobacterium bifidum ATCC-11863 microbiota were assessed in all fecal samples using PCR assay, after counting total lactic acid bacteria. There was a significantly higher difference between the count of both total lactic acid and Lactobacillus acidophilus of healthy controls compared to patients (P-value < 0.001). Though the count of total lactic acid bacteria, and Lactobacillus acidophilus were higher in the cases with early stage of fibrosis (score ≤ 1) compared to those with score > 1, there were no statistically significant differences with both the serum level of hepatitis C viremia (P = 0.850 and 0.977 respectively) and the score of fibrosis (P = 0.246 and 0.260 respectively). Genotypic analysis for the composition of the studied microbiota revealed that diversity was higher in healthy controls compared to patients. The progression of hepatic fibrosis in HCV chronically infected patients seems to be plausible based on finding the altered Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum gut microbiota composition. Thus, modulation of these microbiota seems to be a promising target for prevention and control of HCV infection.

中文翻译：

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肠道嗜酸乳杆菌和双歧双歧杆菌对不同病毒载量非肝硬化丙型肝炎病毒患者肝脏组织病理学变化的潜在影响

肠道微生物群的组成最近被认为是说服包括肝硬化在内的许多人类疾病发病机制的关键因素。评估嗜酸乳杆菌和双歧双歧杆菌微生物群对不同病毒载量的非肝硬化慢性丙型肝炎 (HCV) 感染患者肝脏组织病理学变化进展的潜在影响。此外，为了评估嗜酸乳杆菌 ATCC-4356 和双歧双歧杆菌 ATCC-11863 微生物群基因型的粪便组成 本研究对 40 名非肝硬化慢性感染 HCV 患者和 10 名健康对照进行。在全面临床检查后，评估所有患者的肝活检和 HCV 基因组病毒载量。在计数总乳酸菌后，使用 PCR 测定法评估所有粪便样品中的嗜酸乳杆菌 ATCC-4356 和双歧双歧杆菌 ATCC-11863 微生物群。与患者相比，健康对照组的总乳酸和嗜酸乳杆菌的计数差异显着更高（P 值 < 0.001）。尽管与评分> 1的患者相比，纤维化早期（评分≤1）的病例中总乳酸菌和嗜酸乳杆菌的计数更高，但两者的血清丙型肝炎病毒血症水平差异无统计学意义（分别为 P = 0.850 和 0.977）和纤维化评分（分别为 P = 0.246 和 0.260）。对所研究微生物群组成的基因型分析表明，与患者相比，健康对照组的多样性更高。基于发现改变的嗜酸乳杆菌和双歧双歧杆菌肠道微生物群组成，HCV 慢性感染患者的肝纤维化进展似乎是合理的。因此，调节这些微生物群似乎是预防和控制 HCV 感染的有希望的目标。