Pathological bacterial translocation in liver cirrhosis

Humans harbor nearly 100 trillion intestinal bacteria, which in terms of numbers, represents around ten times more microbial cells than eukaryotic cells. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the largest surface area of the body with an epithelial surface of approximately 400 m, is in constant exposure to these live microorganisms. Their peaceful coexistence demonstrated by the lack of pro-inflammatory responses against commensal bacteria implicates the presence of clearly defined lines of communication. In fact, bacterial translocation (BT), being defined as translocation of bacteria and/or bacterial products (lipopolysaccharides, peptidoglycans, muramyl-dipeptides, bacterial DNA, etc.) from the gut to mesenteric…