Mixed
High dietary cholesterol drives the sequential progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by inducing gut microbiota dysbiosis and altering metabolites, specifically increasing taurocholic acid and decreasing 3-indolepropionic acid.
If you have fatty liver or high cholesterol, reducing dietary cholesterol (found in egg yolks, organ meats, and shellfish) may be critical to preventing liver cancer, not just for heart health. The key is that cholesterol changes your gut bacteria to produce toxic liver metabolites. Lowering cholesterol intake can reverse these bacterial changes and stop liver damage.
High dietary cholesterol led to the sequential progression of steatosis, steatohepatitis, fibrosis and eventually HCC in mice, concomitant with insulin resistance. Cholesterol induced NAFLD–HCC formation was associated with gut microbiota dysbiosis... Dietary cholesterol induced gut bacterial metabolites alteration including increased taurocholic acid and decreased 3- indolepropionic acid.
Why this rating
Strong mechanistic evidence in mice with corroborating human observational data, but lacks direct human interventional trials.
Source
Dietary cholesterol drives fatty liver-associated liver cancer by modulating gut microbiota and metabolites
Xiang Zhang et al. · Gut · 2020
DOI 10.1136/gutjnl-2019-319664
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