Introduction: Health is an important motivation for the consumption of both organic and functional foods. Organic food contains fewer pesticide residues and statistically more selected health-related compounds such as polyphenols in plant products and polyunsaturated fatty acids in milk and meat products. Recent studies suggest that the gut-liver axis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, so probiotics could be a therapeutic tool. Comparing the health effects of yoghurt from organic origin with so-called conventional yoghurt is difficult, because there is no biomarker that would signal the difference with good specificity and sensitivity.
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate numerous biomarkers to evaluate the difference between yoghurt from conventional and organic origin and their health effects in NAFLD.
Patients and method: We performed a prospective, cohort study consisting of 37 (age = 51.73 ± 11.82, male = 21, female = 16) patients with NAFLD at the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine of the Semmelweis University, Budapest. Diagnosis of NAFLD was based on ultrasonography and the exclusion of other etiololgy. The patients were examined also with shear wave elastography to evaluate the hepatic fibrosis stage. We divided the patients randomly into two groups. The patients consumed individually daily 300 grams of yoghurt from organic (n = 21) or conventional (n = 16) origin for 8 weeks. We collected 37 routine laboratory data, measured 4 cytokines, 3 markers of the redox-homeostasis and 14 body composition values before, after, and 12 weeks after the yoghurt consumption.
Results: We found a mild elevation of vitamin D and a minimal reduction of LDL after the yoghurt consumption, but in the other 35 routine laboratory data there was no statistical difference. Adiponectin and leptin levels were elevated after the yoghurt consumption in the "conventional group". In contrast, we found significant decrease of adiponectin levels in the "organic group" after the treatment. Only the adiponectin tendency was different in the two groups. The induced free radical content was also statistically lower after the yoghurt consumption. In the body composition measurements, there were no significant differences.
Conclusion: These data suggest that adiponectin could be a possible biomarker to evaluate the effectiveness of probiotic treatment in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Our work can serve as a basis for future studies investigating relationships between organic yoghurt consumption and health outcomes. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(35): 1466-1474.
Keywords: adiponectin; adiponektin; bél–máj tengely; gut–liver axis; leptin; organic yoghurt; ökológiai joghurt.