Novel gut-microbiota based metagenomic signature for advanced fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

The presence of advanced fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most important predictor of liver mortality. The aim of this study was to examine the diagnosticaccuracy of a gut-microbiota derived metagenomic signature for detecting the presence of advanced fibrosis in NAFLD. In this prospective study, we characterized the microbiome signatures associated with advanced fibrosis (defined as stage 3 or 4 fibrosis) in uniquely well characterized biopsy- and imaging-phenotyped patients with NAFLD. Gut microbiomecompositions of the patients were determined using whole-genome shotgun sequencing of DNA extracted from stool samples.