26 Jun 2018 --- Chemical compounds produced by the bacteria in the gut could be used to spot the early stages of liver disease, according to new research published in the journal Nature Medicine. The findings hint at the potential for chemical by-products produced by the gut microbes to be used as early warning signs of disease, which could be detected using a simple blood test. An international team, led by researchers at Imperial College London, the University of Girona, University of Rome Tor Vergata and INSERM in Toulouse set out to investigate the link between early stages of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and the microbiome – made up of trillions of bacteria, viruses and other microbes living in our digestive tract.
