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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2022; 14(7): 1277-1290
Published online Jul 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i7.1277
Gut microbiota contribution to hepatocellular carcinoma manifestation in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
Valentina Liakina, Sandra Strainiene, Ieva Stundiene, Vaidota Maksimaityte, Edita Kazenaite
Valentina Liakina, Ieva Stundiene, Vaidota Maksimaityte, Edita Kazenaite, Centre of Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Dietetics, Clinic of Gastroenterology, Nephrourology and Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius 01513, Lithuania
Valentina Liakina, Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Faculty of Fundamental Sciences, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH), Vilnius 10223, Lithuania
Sandra Strainiene, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius 01513, Lithuania
Sandra Strainiene, Therapeutic and Radiological Department, Antakalnis Polyclinic, Vilnius 10207, Lithuania
Edita Kazenaite, Department of Pathology, Forensic Medicine and Pharmacology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius 01513, Lithuania
Author contributions: Liakina V and Maksimaityte V performed the literature search, reviewed the literature, and wrote the original manuscript; Stundiene I and Strainiene S reviewed and edited the manuscript; Kazenaite E revised the manuscript for the important intellectual content; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Valentina Liakina, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Centre of Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Dietetics, Clinic of Gastroenterology, Nephrourology and Surgery, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, 3 Universiteto Street, Vilnius 01513, Lithuania. valentina.liakina@santa.lt
Received: January 15, 2022
Peer-review started: January 15, 2022
First decision: April 12, 2022
Revised: April 27, 2022
Accepted: July 11, 2022
Article in press: July 11, 2022
Published online: July 27, 2022
Processing time: 192 Days and 21.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Although the incidence of life-threatening cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) induced by nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has recently increased due to the dramatic increase in steatohepatitis, the pathophysiological mechanisms of the manifestation of HCC nodules have not yet been fully elucidated. There is a lack of tools to diagnose HCC at an early stage, especially considering that HCC can occur in patients with NASH even in the absence of cirrhosis. In this review, we have evaluated the current state of research on the role of the gut microbiota in promoting NASH-induced HCC and the use of the microbiota for the early diagnosis of HCC.