Comparison of gut resistomes in healthy individuals and patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis

Human gut microbiota has been in the centre of scientific interest for a long period of time. Overall health status of an individual has a great impact on the composition of gut microbiota; however, gut microbiota can affect human health. Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are often a part of human gut microbiome. In this paper, total genomic DNA was extracted from stool samples of 147 healthy individuals and of 45 patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis. The presence of six common ARGs (bla_TEM, bla_SHV, bla_OXA, vanA, tet(A), tet(E)) was analysed in the genomic DNA by end-point PCR. The results show significantly higher occurrence of ARGs in the DNA samples from patients (p = 0.0001) showing multiple ARGs significantly more often than in healthy individuals (p = 0.00003). Antibiotic treatment in patients strongly correlated with the occurrence of ARGs (p = 0.0038). Nutrition and sex of healthy individuals did not have significant effect on the occurrence of ARGs (p = 0.156; p = 0.456). ARGs’ occurrence in healthy individuals was the highest in the oldest age group, but the age of individuals and ARGs’ occurrence were not related (p = 0.617). In conclusion, the results underline the importance of health for normal functioning of gut microbiota. Antibiotic resistance represents a challenge in the treatment of patients with liver diseases.