Disease of Foie Gras the Microbiota to the Rescue

In some people, changes in the gut microbiota may promote fat accumulation in the liver. A team from Inserm is working on the development of a treatment based on specific probiotics.

Bacteria in the intestine may play a role in fatty liver disease, which is an accumulation of fat in the liver. It particularly affects obese people and eventually causes liver damage with the risk of cirrhosis or cancer.

No medicine is currently available. Only rules of hygiene of life are advised, in particular a diet.


A team from Inserm, associated with Italian and English researchers, collected medical data from 800 obese men and women, with or without the disease "foie gras". In a subgroup of about 100 women, they performed molecular analyzes using liver biopsies, urine specimens, stool and plasma. "We wanted to see if we could identify, step by step, from the microbiota, the succession of mechanisms responsible for liver disease," said Rémy Burcelin, coordinator of this study, in a statement of July 11, 2018.

In fact, the study showed that, "the more the disease progresses, the more diversity of microbial genes found decreases". It seems that the gut microbiota is depleted even before the first symptoms of the disease appear.

In addition, phenylacetic acid, a compound of the microbiota, potentiates the accumulation of fat in the liver.

Further studies in mice confirmed the role of gut bacteria in the development of hepatic steatosis.

The researchers hope, in the future, to be able to modify the composition of the microbiota by administering specific probiotics, so as to prevent complications in the liver. This strategy could be coupled with drug treatment, under study.