Association of gut microbiota with portal vein pressure in patients with liver cirrhosis undergoing living donor liver transplantation.

Background And Aim: Many recent studies have shown a relationship between various systemic diseases and the gut microbiota (GM), with the gut-liver axis receiving particular attention. In contrast, no report has comprehensively shown the effects of GM on the pathophysiology of patients undergoing living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).

Method: We enrolled 16 recipients who underwent LDLT for liver cirrhosis, and 17 donors constituted the reference group. We examined the differences in GM between recipients and donors. We also examined the relationships between GM, short-chain fatty acids, and portal vein pressure (PVP) in recipients.

Results: There was no significant difference in alpha-diversity between the recipients and donors, but there was variation in beta-diversity among the recipients. The abundance of the phylum Bacteroidetes was significantly higher in recipients than in donors ( = 0.016), and it was positively correlated with PVP ( = 0.511,  = 0.043). Propionic acid, which is a component of short-chain fatty acids, was positively correlated with PVP ( = 0.544,  = 0.0295), the phylum Bacteroidetes ( = 0.677,  = 0.004), and total bilirubin concentration ( = 0.501,  = 0.048). Propionic acid was negatively correlated with serum albumin concentration ( = -0.482,  = 0.043).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest relationships between fecal Bacteroidetes levels, propionic acid concentrations, and PVP in patients with liver cirrhosis undergoing LDLT.