Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Gut microbiota composition influences bile acid pool size and signaling, where germ-free mice are resistant to high-fat diet-induced obesity and NASH due to altered FXR signaling and larger bile acid pools.
Your gut bacteria affect how your body processes fats and sugars. While animal studies show that a healthy microbiome can protect against obesity, we don't yet know exactly how to manipulate this in humans to treat fatty liver disease.
LimitedQualifiesLOW confidence
Studies of germ-free wild-type and Fxr-deficient mice have shown that GM-related changes in BA composition and altered FXR signaling predispose to obesity and obesity-associated phenotypes, including NASH/NAFLD... germ-free mice are resistant to high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and GM promotes weight gain and hepatic steatosis through FXR-dependent mechanisms.
Why this rating
Based on animal models (germ-free mice) with unclear direct applicability to human physiology due to species differences in bile acid composition.
Source
Bile acids and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Juan Pablo Arab et al. · Hepatology · 2016
DOI 10.1002/hep.28709
narrative_reviewCited 606×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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