Smoking has been linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition where excessive fat is stored in the liver of non-alcoholic drinkers.[1]

Some people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can develop steatohepatitis, an aggressive form of fatty liver disease, which may progress to cirrhosis and liver failure.[1]

Researchers discovered that nicotine may accumulate in the intestine of a smoker and activates intestinal AMPKα.

Researchers found that the bacterium Bacteroides xylanisolvens can degrade intestinal nicotine in mice.

Additionally, AMPKα was found to increase intestinal ceramide formation which helps the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease into steatohepatits.

The results highlight the effect of intestinal nicotine accumulation and the discovery of a bacterium that can eliminate intestinal nicotine which reduces liver disease.

Sources:

Chen, B., Sun, L., Zeng, G., Shen, Z., Wang, K., Yin, L., Xu, F., Wang, P., Ding, Y., Nie, Q., Wu, Q., Zhang, Z., Xia, J., Lin, J., Luo, Y., Cai, J., Krausz, K. W., Zheng, R., Xue, Y., Zheng, M. H., … Jiang, C. (2022). Gut bacteria alleviate smoking-related NASH by degrading gut nicotine. Nature, 610(7932), 562–568. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05299-4