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Assessment of the Fecal Lactobacilli Population in Patients with Hepatitis B Virus-Related Decompensated Cirrhosis and Hepatitis B Cirrhosis Treated with Liver Transplant

  • Host Microbe Interaction
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Abstract

This study aims to provide an overview of the diversity of intestinal Lactobacillus among Chinese patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related decompensated cirrhosis and who received liver transplant for hepatitis B cirrhosis. Fecal samples were collected from 38 healthy volunteers, 61 patients with HBV-related decompensated cirrhosis (group LC) and 74 patients who had liver transplant for hepatitis B cirrhosis (group LT). Quantitative polymerase chain reaction technology with species-specific primers was applied to investigate lactobacilli 16S rDNA in crude DNA, extracted from fecal samples. Software package Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and Palaeontological Statistics for Windows was used to analyze the data. Lactobacilli population of the two patient groups was different from the healthy control subjects, principal differences being marked decrease in the population of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (p < 0.001 for both patient groups) and reduction in the frequency of Lactobacillus fermentus (p < 0.001 for group LC and p < 0.01 for group LT). Our findings on the frequency of lactobacilli population suggested decreased diversity in groups LC and LT (compared with the healthy controls (p < 0.001 and p < 0.01, respectively)). Patients tended to have less complex fecal lactobacilli composition than the healthy controls, especially in the group LC.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the physicians of the Department of Infectious Diseases and the surgeons in the Department of Surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University for their collaboration and the collection of stool specimens. This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973) of China (no. 2009CB522400), the Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Bureau Project (no. 2006 C23017), the Zhejiang Chinese Medicine Administrative bureau project (no. 2009ZA012), and the Zhejiang Provincial Medical Scientific Research Foundation of China (Y200921311).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China

    Zhong-Wen Wu, Hai-Feng Lu, Jianping Wu, Jian Zuo, Ping Chen, Ji-Fang Sheng & Lan-Juan Li

  2. Key Lab of Combined Multi-Organ Transplantation, Ministry of Public Health, Key Lab of Organ Transplantation, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Shu-Sen Zheng

  3. Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310003, China

    Shu-Sen Zheng

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  1. Zhong-Wen Wu
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Correspondence to Lan-Juan Li.

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Wu, ZW., Lu, HF., Wu, J. et al. Assessment of the Fecal Lactobacilli Population in Patients with Hepatitis B Virus-Related Decompensated Cirrhosis and Hepatitis B Cirrhosis Treated with Liver Transplant. Microb Ecol 63, 929–937 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-011-9945-1

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