Impaired intestinal defensin production enhances bacterial translocation and subsequently increases hepatic inflammation and fibrogenesis in an experimental NASH model–a new secon…

Aims: Increased intestinal permeability and bacterial overgrowth and are pathophysiological factors of NASH. Recently, we developed a new experimental setting combining a dietary NASH model with a model of chronic colitis, induced by application of dextran sulphate sodium (DSS), in order to study the liver-gut axis. The aim of the current study was to investigate the mechanism of bacterial translocation in our model, i. e. whether expression of intestinal antimicrobial peptides was altered. Methods and Results: Male C57bl/6 mice (n=6) were randomly allocated into four experimental groups receiving ether (I) stan…