Nutritional Interventions Targeting the Gut Microbiome in MASLD: From Prebiotics and Probiotics to Postbiotics and Fecal Microbiota Transplantation.

Acierno Carlo, Caturano Alfredo, Barletta Fannia, Rinaldi Luca et al. — Nutrients

Abstract

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a highly prevalent liver-centred manifestation of systemic metabolic dysfunction. The gut-liver axis provides a biologically credible therapeutic rationale because intestinal dysbiosis, impaired barrier integrity, microbial metabolites, bile acid signalling, short-chain fatty acids, and trimethylamine N-oxide may influence hepatic steatosis, inflammation, and fibrogenesis. This narrative review critically evaluates dietary patterns, prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as microbiome-directed strategies in MASLD. The comparative framework prioritises disease-specific human evidence, clinically meaningful endpoints, trial duration and sample size, reproducibility, safety, and feasibility. Dietary optimisation remains the most clinically grounded intervention, whereas probiotics and synbiotics show modest and heterogeneous signals on biochemical or metabolic surrogate endpoints. Prebiotics are mechanistically coherent but supported by limited liver-centred trials. Postbiotics and microbiome-mediated bioactives remain early-stage and require stricter definitional boundaries. FMT is investigational and should not be extrapolated from its established role in recurrent infection. Most available evidence across all intervention categories relies principally on surrogate endpoints-including aminotransferases, insulin resistance indices, lipid parameters, and microbiome compositional shifts-rather than on validated liver-centred outcomes such as histological improvement or quantitative liver fat assessment; this constrains the strength of conclusions that can currently be drawn. Across all categories, microbiome modulation does not by itself establish liver disease modification, and no microbiome-targeted nutritional intervention has yet demonstrated histological benefit in MASLD. Future trials in this field should prioritise validated hepatic endpoints, phenotype-stratified patient enrolment, adequate follow-up duration, and direct comparisons between intervention categories to determine which microbiome-directed strategies, if any, deliver measurable and reproducible hepatic benefit beyond surrogate markers.

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