Abstract: Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation of muscle mass loss to intestinal microecology in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). Methods Fecal specimens were collected from 60 patients with LC and 30 healthy persons in the same period in Shanxi Bethune Hospital from April 2019 through October 2019. All the samples were sequenced by metagenomics. According to the third lumbar skeletal muscle index (L3 SMI), the patients with LC were divided into muscle mass loss group (n=24) and normal muscle group (n=36), and the differences in intestinal microecology between the two groups were analyzed. Results The L3 SMI in patients with muscle mass loss was (30.9±5.1)cm²/m², much lower than 【(52.0±12.9)cm²/m²,P＜0.05】 in patients with normal muscle; the shannon index in the muscle mass loss group was (2.1±0.8), which was significantly lower than【(2.7±0.8), P<0.05】in the normal muscle group; on phylum level, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in patients with LC was (6.2±7.9)%, which was significantly higher than【(1.7±1.5)%, P<0.05】in the healthy persons, and the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in patients with muscle mass loss was (7.7±9.3)%, significantly higher than【(3.6±4.1)%, P<0.05】in those with normal muscle; on species level, there was a difference of 16 strains between the two groups of patients with LC (P<0.05), and further analysis found that the relative abundance of Lachnospiraceae bacterium and Bacteroides uniforms were positively correlated with SMI(P<0.05). Conclusion Muscle mass loss in patients with cirrhosis is related to intestinal microecological imbalances. The improvement of intestinal microecology in patients with cirrhosis might help the improvement of malnutrition in this setting.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Muscle mass loss, Intestinal flora, Metagenomic sequencing