Mastiha (Pistacia Lentiscus) Improves Gut Microbiota Diversity, Hepatic Steatosis and Disease Activity in a Biopsy-Confirmed Mouse Model of Advanced Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and Fibrosis.

As a result of the obesity epidemic, the prevalence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is increasing. No drug is approved for the treatment of NASH. We have investigated the effect of a nutritional supplement, Mastiha or Chios mastic gum, on metabolic and histological parameters and on the gut microbiome in mice with NASH and fibrosis.Advanced NASH was induced by feeding C57BL/6J mice a diet rich in fat, sucrose and cholesterol for 41 weeks. After randomization, animals received the NASH-inducing diet with or without 0.2% (w/w) Mastiha for a further eight weeks. Disease activity was assessed by liver histology and determination of plasma transaminase activities. Fecal microbiota DNA extraction and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing were used to determine the composition of the gut microbiome. Mastiha supplementation led to a significant reduction in circulating alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity, improvement in hepatic steatosis and collagen content and a reduction in NAFLD activity score. Furthermore, it resulted in a partial but significant recovery of gut microbiota diversity and changes in identity and abundance of specific taxa.This is the first study demonstrating an improvement in disease activity in mice with advanced NASH with fibrosis by a diet containing Mastiha. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.