Page 76 - MI-1-2

Microbes & Immunity

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Hydrogen alleviates non-alcoholic fatty liver

disease in mice by regulating intestinal flora

Yu Wang 1,2† , Fan Zhang 1† , Yan Tian 2 , Yunxi Chen 2 , Jianjun Zhou * , and
2
Youzhen Wei 2,3,4,5 *
1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
2 Research Center for Translational Medicine, Tongji University Affiliated East Hospital, Shanghai, China
3 Hydrogen Medicine Center, the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University Taian City Central Hospital,
Taian, Shandong, China
4 Research Center for Translational Medicine, Jinan People’s Hospital, Shandong First Medical
University, Jinan, Shandong, China
5 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Jinan Hospital (Jinan City Rehabilitation Hospital), Jinan,
Shandong, China

Abstract

Despite being the most common form of chronic liver disease, there are still no
approved drugs for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The

† These authors contributed equally aim of this study was to elucidate the therapeutic effects and possible mechanisms
to this work. of hydrogen (H ) inhalation in mice with NAFLD. Male C57BL/6 mice (6 weeks old)
2
*Corresponding authors: were fed either a 60% fat diet (high-fat diet [HFD]) or a 10% fat diet (normal diet)
Jianjun Zhou for 11 weeks. Then, H was administered to random HFD-fed mice for another
2
(zhoujj_2000@aliyun.com) 11 weeks before they were euthanized. Biochemical analysis of serum samples,
Youzhen Wei
(wei-youzhen@163.com) histological analysis of liver and ileum samples, 16S rRNA sequencing analysis of
stool samples, and analysis of the expression levels of related factors by enzyme-
Citation: Wang Y, Zhang F, Tian Y, linked immunosorbent assay were conducted to determine the effect of H
Chen Y, Zhou J, Wei Y. Hydrogen 2
alleviates non-alcoholic fatty liver intervention on NAFLD. H inhalation alleviated hyperglycemia and impaired glucose
2
disease in mice by regulating tolerance; decreased the serum concentrations of triglycerides, cholesterol, alanine
intestinal flora. Microbes & aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, lipopolysaccharide, and tumor
Immunity. 2024;1(2):70-80.
doi: 10.36922/mi.3896 necrosis factor-alpha; and ameliorated liver injury by a HFD, although no weight
loss was observed. Interestingly, H inhalation increased the relative abundance of
Received: June 8, 2024 2
Akkermansia muciniphila and decreased the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidia ratio in the
Accepted: August 29, 2024 intestinal tract of NAFLD mice. These data indicate that H alleviated the symptoms
2
Published Online: October 29, of NAFLD by increasing the abundance of A. muciniphila in the intestine. Thus, H may
2
2024 be a new potential treatment strategy for patients with NAFLD.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: Hydrogen; Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; Intestinal flora; High-fat diet
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is caused by unknown factors other
Publishing remains neutral with than alcohol and other factors of liver injury, refers to a clinicopathological syndrome
regard to jurisdictional claims in 1
published maps and institutional that is characterized by excessive deposition of fat in liver cells. NAFLD is one of the
affiliations. most common liver diseases. With the increasing prevalence, NAFLD has become the

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2024) 70 doi: 10.36922/mi.3896