Title

Role of gut microbiota dysbiosis in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among obese individuals

Authors

Vijaya Krishna Prasad Vudathaneni¹, Swetha Bharathi Nadella¹, Raja Mogallapu², Kalikrishna Varaprasad Movva³ & Ramanarayana Boyapati^4,*

Affiliation

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Columbus Regional Hospital, Columbus, Indiana, United States of America; ²Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, United States of America; ³Department of Anaesthesiology, Anaesthetics, Principal House Officer, Mackay Base Hospital, Mackay, Queensland, Australia; ⁴Department of Periodontology, Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Takkellapadu, Guntur andhra Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Vijaya Krishna Prasad Vudathaneni - E-mail: vvkinternalmedicine@gmail.com
Swetha Bharathi Nadella - E-mail: drswethanadella@gmail.com
Raja Mogallapu - E-mail: drmrng@yahoo.com
Kalikrishna Varaprasad Movva - E-mail: drkaliprasad99@gmail.com
Ramanarayana Boyapati - E-mail: dr.ramanarayana@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9490144365;

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2025; Revised August 31, 2025; Accepted August 31, 2025, Published August 31, 2025

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is highly prevalent in obese individuals, and gut microbiota dysbiosis is increasingly recognized as a major contributor to its pathogenesis. In this cross-sectional study of 80 obese participants (40 NAFLD and 40 controls), 16S rRNA sequencing revealed significantly reduced microbial diversity in NAFLD patients (Shannon index 2.9 vs. 3.6; p=0.001), with increased Firmicutes, Enterobacteriaceae, and Ruminococcus, and decreased Bacteroidetes. These patients also showed elevated liver enzymes (ALT, AST) and inflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-6). A strong correlation was observed between gut dysbiosis and hepatic steatosis (r=0.72; p<0.001), highlighting the potential of microbiota modulation as a therapeutic strategy for NAFLD.

Keywords

Gut microbiota, dysbiosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity, hepatic steatosis, liver inflammation, microbial diversity, 16S rRNA sequencing.

Citation

Vudathaaneni et al. Bioinformation 21(8): 2868-2871 (2025)

Edited by

Hiroj Bagde

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.