Circadian Disruption and the Gut–Liver Axis: Linking Modern Lifestyle, Microbiome Dysbiosis, and Metabolic Liver Health

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FORMOSA NEWS - Surabaya - Disrupted Body Clocks Damage Gut and Liver Health, According to New Research Review. Late-night work shifts, irregular sleeping schedules, and midnight snacking do more than just make people feel tired. Researchers Annisa Zahra Mufida and Titong Sugihartono from Universitas Airlangga in Indonesia reviewed scientific literature published between 2020 and 2025 to show how circadian clock disruption triggers imbalance in gut bacteria, damages the intestinal barrier, and promotes metabolic liver disease. Their study, published in August 2026 in the Formosa Journal of Applied Sciences, underscores that when human behavioral schedules clash with internal biological timing, communication between the gut and the liver breaks down, driving long-term metabolic health issues.

The Growing Challenge of Modern Biological Misalignment

Modern lifestyles increasingly force people to live out of sync with natural day-night cycles. Shift work, artificial light at night, and erratic meal timings desynchronize the body's central clock in the brain and peripheral clocks in metabolic organs like the liver and gut. Understanding this misalignment is vital as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)—also known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)—continues to rise globally. The findings highlight that maintaining liver health requires addressing not only what people eat, but also when they sleep and eat.

Synthesizing Five Years of Microscopic and Metabolic Evidence
To map out how biological clock disruptions affect internal organs, Mufida and Sugihartono analyzed 18 peer-reviewed original and review studies indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar between 2020 and 2025. The researchers used a narrative review methodology to systematically track how circadian misalignment changes gut microbial behavior, short-chain fatty acid production, bile acid signaling, and liver inflammation.

Key Findings: How Disruption Spreads from Gut to Liver
The review mapped out a step-by-step biological chain reaction connecting modern habits to liver damage:

• Functional Microbiome Shifts: Irregular sleep and shifting sleep-wake schedules alter the daily functional rhythms and networks of gut bacteria before major changes in bacterial species counts even appear.
  
• Loss of Microbial Rhythmicity: Erratic meal timings and late-night eating disrupt "microbial oscillators"—beneficial gut bacteria that depend on predictable feeding-fasting cycles to produce vital metabolic signals.
  
• Intestinal Barrier Breakdown ("Leaky Gut"): Circadian disruption weakens the gut lining. This increased permeability allows bacterial toxins, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), to escape the intestines and travel directly to the liver via portal blood circulation.
  
• Disrupted Bile Acid and SCFA Signaling: Misaligned biological clocks impair short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production and alter bile acid transformation, reducing the body's natural control over glucose and fat metabolism.
  
• Hepatic Inflammation and Fat Accumulation: Once endotoxins reach the liver, they trigger innate immune pathways that cause chronic low-grade inflammation, oxidative stress, and rapid lipid (fat) accumulation in liver tissue.
  

Real-World Impact and Solutions
These findings offer clear practical strategies for public health, workplace wellness, and clinical medicine. Occupational health policies for shift workers should incorporate chrononutrition strategies, such as time-restricted eating, to shield peripheral clocks from severe misalignment. Individuals can protect their gut and liver health by keeping consistent sleep schedules, avoiding late-night meals, and minimizing artificial light exposure before sleep. Medical practitioners can also use chrononutrition and targeted circadian interventions as preventive steps against metabolic liver diseases.

Author Profiles
Annisa Zahra Mufida, MD, M.Sc. – Researcher and academic at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia, specializing in medical biochemistry, metabolic health, and gastrointestinal physiology.
dr. Titong Sugihartono, MD, Sp.PD, K-GEH – Clinical researcher and academic at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia, specializing in internal medicine, gastroenterology, and hepatology.

Source 
Annisa Zahra Mufida, Titong Sugihartono. Circadian Disruption and the Gut-Liver Axis: Linking Modern Lifestyle, Microbiome Dysbiosis, and Metabolic Liver Health. Formosa Journal of Applied Sciences (FJAS). Vol. 5, No. 8, hal. 1851–1868)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/fjas.v5i8.111
URL: https://journalfjas.my.id/index.php/fjas