ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1597145
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Progress on the Role of Gut Microbiota in the Incidence and Prevention of Liver DiseasesView all 17 articles
Analysis of Gut and Circulating Microbiota Characteristics in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis and Portal Vein Thrombosis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Agedness Gastroenterology, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, China
- 2Graduate School, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China
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Background:Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a common and serious complication of liver cirrhosis, often associated with worsened prognosis and increased risk of hepatic decompensation. The role of gut and circulating microbiota in its pathogenesis remains unclear.We enrolled cirrhotic patients with PVT(n=17) and cirrhotic patients without PVT (n=25). Fecal and peripheral blood samples were collected from all; portal vein samples were obtained from 16 patients undergoing TIPS. 16S rRNA sequencing was performed on fecal, peripheral blood, and portal venous blood samples to compare the diversity, structural differences, key microbial taxa, and characteristic variations of gut and circulating microbiota between cirrhotic patients with and without PVT.Results:1.Gut microbiota showed no α-diversity difference between groups, but β-diversity differed significantly. PVT patients had increased Gram-negative bacteria (such as Shigella-Escherichia) and decreased SCFA-producing taxa. 2.Compared with peripheral vein microbiota,portal vein microbiota showed significantly higher α-and β-diversity in cirrhotic patients with PVT, with Massilia enriched. 3.Portal microbiota had the highest diagnostic value for PVT (AUC = 0.95). 4.The tPVT group had more portal-feces shared genera than the tNPVT sgroup (49 vs. 29). Portal-peripheral-feces shared taxa were predominantly LPS-producing Gram-negative bacteria such as Shigella-Escherichia and Klebsiella.5.Most bacterial genera in the portal vein showed significant positive correlations with LPS and FⅧ in the portal vein. Genera such as Faecalibacterium, Eubacterium_hallii_group, Ruminococcus, Agathobacter, Bacteroides, and Romboutsia were significantly negatively correlated with Child-Pugh scores. Faecalibacterium, Eubacterium_hallii_group, Alistipes, Ruminococcus, Agathobacter, Bacteroides, Blautia, and Subdoligranulum were significantly negatively correlated with MELD scores. Ruminococcus and Agathobacter were significantly negatively correlated with D-Dimer, while Subdoligranulum showed significant positive correlations with LPS and FⅧ in the portal vein. Conclusions:Intestinal dysbiosis and translocation in cirrhotic patients with PVT lead to differential changes in the portal and peripheral circulatory microbiomes. This may contribute to the formation of PVT by inducing endotoxemia and systemic inflammation, providing a new microbiological perspective on the pathogenesis of cirrhosis-related PVT through the gut-liver axis.
Keywords: Liver Cirrhosis, Portal vein thrombosis, Gut Microbiota, circulating microbiota, microbial translocation
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qi, yang, wang, sang, zhang and bai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: yun bai, Department of Agedness Gastroenterology, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, China
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