Grant: Operating Grant

About 20-30% of Canadians have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is a fat buildup in the liver with or without inflammation. The disease can damage the liver and sometimes requires liver transplantation. Our team has received a grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Reseaearch (CIHR) to examine the role of diet, especially antioxidant vitamins and fat, in fatty liver disease. We also give fish oil to patients with fatty liver to see if this is beneficial for their liver. This project is almost completed. In addition, we have collected stool from our patients, as the latest research shows that the kind of bacteria in the gut could also influence the course of fatty liver disease. We are now seeking funding to characterize the bacteria in the stool and to measure bacterial products in stool and blood of patients with fatty liver compared to healthy controls. This study is new and important, as it could lead to new treatments for patients with fatty liver disease. If the gut bacteria are different in patients with fatty liver, we might in the future try to treat fatty liver with beneficial bacteria (probiotics) or carbohydrates that promote the growth of these "good" bacteria (prebiotics). Nobody has ever tested, whether fish oil could change human gut bacteria. Therefore we would also like to measure gut bacteria before and after 1 year treatment with fish oil in patients with fatty liver.