The Effect of Varying Diets on the Gut Microbiome of Cirrhosis Patients in the United States, Mexico and Turkey

Abstract

Cirrhosis is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, affecting people of various incomes and diets. It has been discovered in various studies by Bajaj et al. that a person’s diet can affect cirrhosis indirectly by altering their gut microbiota. In fact, an increase in pathogenic bacteria present in the gut is often associated with disease progression. One of the factors affecting gut microbiota composition is diet, which varies among countries and cultures. In this study, we compared the effect of various diets on the severity of cirrhosis in patients from the United States, Mexico, and Turkey. The study includes patients with decompensated cirrhosis, compensated cirrhosis, and controls with no liver disease within each country. The Turkish diet consists of more probiotics and tea while the US participants with western diet consumed less fermented foods and had more coffee and soda; the Mexican diet, when compared to the American, consisted of lower protein and vegetable intake. Stool samples were collected from all three cohorts, sequenced using Ion Torrent technology, and analyzed using LEfSe, QIIME2, and MaAsLin pipelines. These results show that there is a difference in the gut microbiota among the participants in the various countries, and that diet does affect the microbiome. Understanding how diet affects cirrhosis can impact how the condition is treated, and prevented.