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Updated: Jun 4, 2025
Optimized Analysis of In Vivo and In Vitro Hepatic Steatosis
Published on: March 11, 2017
Dark chocolate's impact on low-grade endotoxemia in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis
Arianna Pannunzio1, Francesco Baratta1, Enrico Maggio1
1Department of Clinical, Internal, Anesthesiologic and Cardiovascular Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Background And Aims:
Cocoa may have prebiotic effects and improve gut barrier function. However, it remains unclear whether dark chocolate can reduce lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). This study aims to evaluate the effect of dark chocolate compared to milk chocolate on endotoxemia in patients with MASH.
Methods And Results:
Nineteen patients with MASH were randomly assigned in a crossover design to consume either 40 g/d of dark chocolate (>85% cocoa) or 40 g/d of milk chocolate (<35% cocoa) for 2 weeks to evaluate circulating levels of LPS and zonulin. A significant difference between treatments was observed in LPS (P = 0.04) and zonulin (P = 0.02) levels based on the ANOVA conducted on the crossover study data. Pairwise comparisons revealed that, compared to baseline, after 14 days of dark chocolate consumption, LPS levels decreased from 22 ± 4 to 19 ± 4 pg/dL (-15%), and zonulin levels decreased from 3.2 ± 0.9 to 2.5 ± 0.8 pg/mL (-20%). Linear correlation analysis indicated that the change (Δ) in LPS values before and after chocolate intake correlated with the change (Δ) in zonulin levels (R = 0.340, P = 0.03).
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that dark chocolate reduces circulating levels of LPS and zonulin in patients with MASH.
