Lonicera caerulea polysaccharide alleviates alcoholic liver disease in mice associated with modulation of the gut bacteriome and mycobiome.

Source: PubMed, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine

Lonicera caerulea is a commercial fruit crop. A polysaccharide (LCP) was extracted from its fruits and characterized as a pyranose polysaccharide with a molecular weight of 4.096 × 10 Da. Monosaccharide composition analysis revealed that LCP was a heteropolysaccharide composed of glucose, mannose, xylose, glucuronic acid, galacturonic acid, rhamnose, and galactose. In a mouse model of acute alcoholic liver injury, oral administration of LCP for 14 days was associated with dose-dependent improvements in serum transaminases, lipid accumulation, oxidative stress markers, and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Histopathological examination confirmed that LCP attenuated alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis and inflammatory infiltration. To explore potential mechanisms, 16S rRNA and ITS-1 sequencing of cecal contents were performed. LCP treatment was associated with increased relative abundance of the bacterial phylum Bacteroidetes and the fungal genus Kazachstania, and decreased relative abundance of the bacterial genus Dubosiella and the fungal genus Mortierella. Correlation analyses revealed that the bacterial and fungal taxa enriched by LCP were negatively correlated with liver injury markers. These findings suggest that LCP may alleviate alcoholic liver disease in association with modulation of the gut bacteriome and mycobiome, providing experimental evidence for the involvement of cross-kingdom microbial interactions in this process.