Solid‐state fermented Chinese alcoholic beverage (baijiu) and ethanol resulted in distinct metabolic and microbiome responses

Alcoholic beverages, which are consumed widely in most parts of the world, have long been identified as a major risk factor for all liver diseases, particularly alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Recent compositional analyses suggest that Chinese baijiu (CB), a clear alcoholic liquid distilled from fermented grains, contains large amounts of small molecule bioactive compounds in addition to a significant amount of ethanol (EtOH). Here, in an experimental mouse model, we show that CB caused lower degrees of liver injury than pure EtOH by protecting against the decrease of the relative abundance of Akkermansia and increase of the relative abundance of Prevotella in the gut, thereby preventing the destruction of the intestinal barrier. Furthermore, we demonstrated that EtOH-induced alteration of the gut microbiota profoundly affected the host metabolome. Compared with EtOH feeding, CB feeding resulted in higher concentrations of functional saturated long-chain fatty acids and short-chain fatty acids. The additional mouse models of low dosages of EtOH and of blending baijiu validated that volatile compounds in CB can attenuate EtOH-induced liver damages. Our results provide supporting evidence that ALD was profoundly influenced by host-gut microbiota metabolic interactions and that small molecule organic compounds in CB could attenuate ALD.—Fang, C., Du, H., Zheng, X., Zhao, A., Jia, W., Xu, Y. Solid-state fermented Chinese alcoholic beverage (baijiu) and ethanol resulted in distinct metabolic and microbiome responses. FASEB J. 33, 7274–7288 (2019). www.fasebj.org