Gut Microbial Profile Changes in Patients with Gallbladder Stones after UDCA/CDCA Treatment

• Published in: Biomedicines Vol. 11; no. 3; p. 777
• Main Authors: Lee, Jungnam, Lee, Sohee, Kim, Hanul, Bae, Jaewoong, Park, Jin-Seok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.03.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Abdomen; Acids; Analysis; Antibiotics; Asymptomatic; Bile; CDCA; Chenodeoxycholic acid; Data analysis; Deoxycholic acid; Discriminant analysis; Disease; Dissolution; Dosage and administration; Drug therapy; Dysbacteriosis; Feces; Gallbladder; Gallstones; GB stone; Gene amplification; Health care; Hospitals; Intestinal microflora; microbiome; Microbiomes; Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms); Outpatient care facilities; Patient outcomes; Probiotics; Relative abundance; Roseburia; rRNA 16S; Testing; UDCA; Ultrasonic imaging; Ursodeoxycholic acid; South Korea; United States > US; CDCA; UDCA; GB stone; microbiome; Roseburia
• ISSN: 2227-9059; 2227-9059
• DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11030777

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) are used to treat patients with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic gallstone disease. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of gallbladder (GB) stone dissolution by UDCA/CDCA and the impact of treatment on gut microbial profiles. Fifteen treatment-naive patients with GB stones were initially included, but two dropped out during the treatment period. UDCA/CDCA was administered for 6 months. Abdominal ultrasonography was performed to evaluate response to treatment. In addition, fecal samples were collected before and after treatment for gut microbiome profiling. Then, 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was carried out on fecal samples obtained before and after treatment, and results were compared with those of forty healthy controls. Eight (62%) of the thirteen evaluable patients treated with UDCA/CDCA responded to treatment (four achieved complete GB stone resolution and four partial dissolution). Taxonomic compositions of fecal samples at the phylum level showed a significantly lower relative abundance of the phylum in the pre-UDCA/CDCA group than in the healthy control group ( = 0.024). At the genus level, the relative abundances of five bacteria ( , , , , and ) differed in the control and pre-UDCA/CDCA group. Interestingly, the abundance of was restored after 6 months of UDCA/CDCA treatment. Gut microbial dysbiosis was observed in GB stone patients and partially reversed by UDCA/CDCA treatment, which also effectively dissolved GB stones.