The Impact of Probiotic Bifidobacterium on Liver Diseases and the Microbiota

Life (Basel). 2024 Feb 8;14(2):239. doi: 10.3390/life14020239.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown the promising potential of probiotics, especially the bacterial genus Bifidobacterium, in the treatment of liver diseases. In this work, a systematic review was conducted, with a focus on studies that employed advanced Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies to explore the potential of Bifidobacterium as a probiotic for treating liver pathologies such as Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), Alcoholic Liver Disease (ALD), Cirrhosis, and Hepatocelullar Carcinoma (HCC) and its impact on the microbiota. Our results indicate that Bifidobacterium is a safe and effective probiotic for treating liver lesions. It successfully restored balance to the intestinal microbiota and improved biochemical and clinical parameters in NAFLD, ALD, and Cirrhosis. No significant adverse effects were identified. While more research is needed to establish its efficacy in treating NASH and HCC, the evidence suggests that Bifidobacterium is a promising probiotic for managing liver lesions.

Keywords: alcoholic liver disease; hepatocellular carcinoma; microbiology; microbiome; microbiota; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; probiotics.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by CAPES, grant number 88887.877789/2023-00 (G.H.H.) and grant number 88887.798411/2022-00 (P.H.R.).