Investigation on the Role of Gut-liver Axis for Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis Through Bariatric Surgery

Investigation on Novel Route of Gut Microbiota Products for Bariatric Surgery to Improve Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis and Development on Therapeutic Implications

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an aggressive form of NAFLD with remarkable inflammatory features which may cause advanced fibrosis and liver cancer. So far there is no FDA-approved drug for treating NASH. A 10% weight loss by life style modification is a standard recommendation to treat NASH which achieves only 10-20% success rate in clinical practice. Thus, the development of therapeutics to prevent and treat NASH is certainly an unmet need. For now, the mechanism of how simple steatosis progresses to NASH remains unclear and accumulating evidences suggest the role of gut microbiota may be essential. Studies have also noted the bariatric surgery effectively improve diabetes and NASH with significant alterations in the composition and function of gut microbiome. In this study, the investigators aim to investigate the role of gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of NASH by comparing NAFLD severity, gut microbiome, metabolomics, immune profiles among patients before and after the bariatric surgery. With these efforts, the investigators wish to decipher the mechanism of how bariatric surgery may improve NASH through changing the gut microbiota and find out microbe-associated molecular signatures between NASH and NAFLD through this study.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis; Bariatric Surgery
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: Bariatric surgery

Detailed Description

The investigators anticipate to recruit 140 morbidly obese patients who will receive bariatric surgery including 100 patients receiving sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and 40 receiving gastric bypass surgery (GB). Liver biopsy will be performed during the operation to confirm the histological scores of NAFLD severity. The investigators expect to have 50% NASH and 50% NAFL patients from these morbidly obese patients based on previous domestic data. (i.e. 50 patients receiving SG to have NASH and 50 patients receiving SG to have NAFL; 20 patients receiving GB to have NASH and 20 patients receiving GB to have NAFL.) In this study, the investigators have two study objectives which are as follows.

1. The first objective is to discover potential mechanisms among gut-liver axis for preventing or promoting NAFL to NASH by comparing (1) fecal microbiome composition and metabolomics, (2) peripheral blood biochemistry, metabolomics, immune cell phenotypes, and cytokines (3) portal vein biochemistry, metabolomics, immune cell phenotypes, and cytokines (4) Liver metabolomics and RNA-seq (5) gut permeability test (lactulose/mannitol challenge) (6) host genetic susceptibility for NAFLD (PNPLA3 and TM6SF2) between the tissue-proved NASH and NAFL patients in this study with a cross-sectional comparison.
2. The second objective is to longitudinally investigate the potential mechanisms of bariatric surgery for improving NASH via a gut-microbiota dependent pathway. Clinical and experimental data before (baseline) and after (1st, 3rd, 6th months) bariatric surgery will be collected which include (1) non-invasive evaluation of NAFLD severity (Fibroscan, MRI-PDFF (proton density fat fraction) and MRE), (2) blood biochemistry, metabolomics, immune cell phenotypes, and cytokines (3) fecal microbiome and metabolomics (4) gut permeability test (5) liver biopsy histology (if available)

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 140

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Wei-Kai Wu; Phone Number: +886-2-23717101; Email: weikaiwu0115@gmail.com

Study Locations

• Taiwan
  • Taipei, Taiwan, 100
    • Recruiting
    • National Taiwan University Hospital
    • Contact: Ming-Shiang Wu, MD, PhD; Phone Number: 65043 +886-2-23123456; Email: mingshiang@ntu.edu.tw

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Morbidly obese patients who planned to receive bariatric surgery

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Age >20，morbidly obese patients who will receive bariatric surgery.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Average daily alcohol intake >20 grams,
• Hepatitis B carriers, Hepatitis C carriers,
• people with liver disease caused by other causes
• liver cirrhosis,
• diseases related to abnormal blood coagulation,
• inflammatory bowel disease,
• routine use of steroids or immunity Inhibitors and other immunomodulatory drugs
• ursodeoxycholic and other drugs that affect bile acid metabolism
• those who have used antibiotics or probiotics within one month

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

4

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Obese patients tissue proved NASH; age >20，morbid obesity who will receive bariatric surgery, tissue proved NASH
Obese patients tissue proved NAFL; age >20，morbid obesity who will receive bariatric surgery, tissue proved NAFL
NASH (before bariatric surgery); age >20，morbid obesity receiving bariatric surgery and was proved NASH histologically. Data collected before bariatric surgery.	Procedure: Bariatric surgery; Bariatric surgery; Other Names: Liver biopsy; Portal vein sampling
NASH (after bariatric surgery); age >20，morbid obesity receiving bariatric surgery and was proved NASH histologically. Data collected after bariatric surgery.	Procedure: Bariatric surgery; Bariatric surgery; Other Names: Liver biopsy; Portal vein sampling

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change of NAFLD severity score (histology) from baseline to the 6th month	Liver biopsy will be performed before and after surgery (if available) to acquire histology evaluation	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery
Change of NAFLD severity measured by Fibroscan from baseline to the 6th month	Fibroscan (CAP and kPa)	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery
Change of NAFLD severity measured by MRI proton density fat fraction from baseline to the	MRI proton density fat fraction (%)	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery
Change of NAFLD severity measured by magnetic resonance elastography from baseline to the	magnetic resonance elastography (kPa)	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change of gut microbiome profiles	fecal 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and shotgun metagenome sequencing	Baseline, 1st month, 3rd month and 6th month after surgery
Change of body fluid metabolomic profiles	Metabolites in blood fluids measured by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry	Baseline, 1st month, 3rd month and 6th month after surgery
Change of Immune profiles	Immune cell phenotype patterns in body fluids measured by flow cytometry	Baseline, 1st month, 3rd month and 6th month after surgery
Change of gut permeability test	Lactulose/Mannitol challenge test	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery
Change of gene expression profiles of liver tissue	gene expression measured by RNA-seq	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery (if available)
Change of metabolomic profiles of liver tissue	Metabolites in liver tissue measured by liquid chromatography mass	Baseline and 6 months after bariatric surgery (if available)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital
• Collaborators: Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ming-Shiang Wu, MD, PhD, National Taiwan University Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 16, 2019
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): April 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Anticipated): September 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 22, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 2, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): August 6, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 27, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 25, 2022
• Last Verified: September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Metabolomics; Bariatric Surgery; Gut Microbiota; Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis; Metagenomics; Gut-Liver Axis
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Digestive System Diseases; Liver Diseases; Fatty Liver; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: 201903037RIND

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No