Effect of probiotics in treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A Meta-analysis

Objective To systematically analyze the value of probiotics in the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) .Methods PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang Data were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on probiotics in the treatment on NAFLD published before December 2017. Secondary screening was performed for retrieval results, the risk of bias of the studies included was evaluated, and related data were extracted. Rev Man 5. 3 was used for the meta-analysis.Results A total of 11 RCTs with 599 NAFLD patients were included. The results showed that probiotics significantly improved the levels of alanine aminotransferase (mean difference [MD]=-15. 23, 95% confidence interval [CI]:-19. 63 to-10. 82, P < 0. 000 01) , aspartate aminotransferase (MD =-17. 08, 95% CI:-24. 23 to-9. 92, P < 0. 000 01) , gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (MD =-20. 49, 95%CI:-26. 23 to-14. 74, P < 0. 000 01) , triglyceride (MD =-0. 12, 95% CI:-0. 24 to-0. 01, P = 0. 04) , total cholesterol (MD =-0. 33, 95% CI:-0. 56 to-0. 11, P = 0. 003) , high-density lipoprotein (MD =-0. 07, 95% CI:-0. 14 to-0. 01, P = 0. 03) , tumor necrosis factor-α (MD =-0. 38, 95% CI:-0. 52 to-0. 24, P < 0. 000 01) , and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (MD =-0. 39, 95% CI:-0. 53 to-0. 24, P < 0. 000 01) . However, probiotics had no significant effect on body mass index (MD =-0. 73, 95% CI:-1. 91 to 0. 46, P = 0. 23) and low-density lipoprotein (MD =-0. 30, 95% CI:-0. 60 to 0. 01, P = 0. 06) .Conclusion Probiotics can significantly reduce the levels of liver aminotransferases, blood lipids, inflammatory factors, and insulin resistance in patients with NAFLD and thus exerts a certain therapeutic effect on NAFLD.