Monascus vinegar protects against liver inflammation in high-fat-diet rat by alleviating intestinal microbiota dysbiosis and enteritis

[Display omitted] •Monascus vinegar (MV) was considered an effective supplement to prevent chronic liver inflammation in high-fat diet-fed rat.•MV pre-treatment contributed to the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis.•MV pre-treatment ameliorated liver inflammation by regulating the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B–nuclear factor-κB–mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade signaling pathway. Monascus vinegar (MV) is typical fermented food with anti-inflammatory properties. Liver inflammation induced by high-fat diet (HFD) is closely associated with intestinal homeostasis. This study aimed to assess the protective properties and associated mechanism of MV on liver inflammation in HFD-fed rats from liver transcriptome and gut microbiota. MV mitigated body weight (BW) and liver index. The increase of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and expression of claudin-1, zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), and occludin indicates the improvement of enteritis. Notably, MV selectively up-regulated the relative abundance of unclassified_f_Ruminococcaceae, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, and norank_f_Muribaculaceae that exhibited negative correlations with interleukin-1β/2 (IL-1β/2), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Importantly, PI3K/ protein kinase B (Akt)–nuclear factor (NF)-κB–MAPK signaling pathway was actively responsive to MV. Study provides that MV has excellent potential to become a natural functional food to prevent chronic inflammation.