Postbiotics: a new orientation for modulation of the gut dysbiosis in liver cirrhosis

Abstract:

Alterations of intestinal microbiota, intestinal barrier dysfunction and bacterial translocation are the common pathogenetic characteristics in cirrhosis, which is an end-stage of liver disease resulting from different causal agents. Alterations of intestinal microbiota play an important role in induction and promotion of liver disease progression. Probiotics have been shown to exhibit limited efficacy in targeting gut barrier dysfunction caused by liver cirrhosis, while a vast studies attests to the beneficial effects of probiotics in the gut. Recently, more and more evidences suggests that certain probiotics components or metabolites (defined as "postbiotics") have beneficial properties as same as the viability status of probiotics. Postbiotics exert a variety of beneficial effects, including modulation of the microbiota composition, regulation of the epithelial barrier function and intestinal immune responses. The merits of probiotics include clear chemical structures and safety dose parameters. In this review, we introduced the effects of gut dysbiosis on complications and disease progression of cirrhosis. Specifically, discussion is focused on the prospect of postbiotics in modulation of the gut dysbiosis in cirrhosis and its potential role in improve the disease progression.