Fibrosis and the intestinal microbiome; a focus on chronic liver disease.

The role of the microbiome in progression of liver disease is an exciting area of research that is advancing rapidly supported by the development of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics tools that simultaneously identify the composition and function of the microbiome. Changes in the microbiome are associated with pathogenesis of chronic liver disease; specifically, changes in microbiome composition predict disease severity and specific microbial signatures can be used to distinguish between mild disease, advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. Future work combining functional metagenomic analysis with preclinical mechanistic studies will be key to advancing our understanding of how the microbiome affects the pathogenesis of different chronic liver disease aetiologies and to identify personalised therapeutics based on modulation of the microbiome and its function.