Role of the normal gut microbiota.

By S. Jandhyala, R. Talukdar, C. Subramanyam, Harish Vuyyuru, M. Sasikala, D. Nageshwar Reddy. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 2015

2,597 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Relation between the gut microbiota and human health is being increasingly recognised. It is now well established that a healthy gut flora is largely responsible for overall health of the host. The normal human gut microbiota comprises of two major phyla, namely Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Though the gut microbiota in an infant appears haphazard, it starts resembling the adult flora by the age of 3 years. Nevertheless, there exist temporal and spatial variations in the microbial distribution from esophagus to the rectum all along the individual's life span. Developments in genome sequencing technologies and bioinformatics have now enabled scientists to study these microorganisms and their function and microbe-host interactions in an elaborate manner both in health and disease. The normal gut microbiota imparts specific function in host nutrient metabolism, xenobiotic and drug metabolism, maintenance of structural integrity of the gut mucosal barrier, immunomodulation, and protection against pathogens. Several factors play a role in shaping the normal gut microbiota. They include (1) the mode of delivery (vaginal or caesarean); (2) diet during infancy (breast milk or formula feeds) and adulthood (vegan based or meat based); and (3) use of antibiotics or antibiotic like molecules that are derived from the environment or the gut commensal community. A major concern of antibiotic use is the long-term alteration of the normal healthy gut microbiota and horizontal transfer of resistance genes that could result in reservoir of organisms with a multidrug resistant gene pool.

Subfields: Food Science, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/14f4ffb15f63ea6a4901a0e7aeee1e18e24b71d9

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Citations in the corpus

• Gut Microbiome: Profound Implications for Diet and Disease (2019, background): “Normally, anaerobic microbes in the gut derive their nutrients from fermentation of indigestible oligosaccharides and other carbohydrates escaping proximal digestion [19].”
• Factors affecting the composition of the gut microbiota, and its modulation (2019, background): “There are several factors that can change gut microbiota, including host genetic, diet, age (Odamaki et al., 2016; Jandhyala et al., 2015), mode of birth (Nagpal et al.”
• Prenatal developmental origins of behavior and mental health: The influence of maternal stress in pregnancy. (2017, background): “The microbiota (or microflora) refers to the bacteria, fungi, archaea, viruses and protozoans that co-exist within mammalian bodies, and influence (both positively and negatively) risk for a range of diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic diseases, and allergies, but also neurodeve”
• The Gut Microbiota and Inflammation: An Overview (2020, background): “In addition to nutrient metabolism, gut microorganisms affect aspects of pharmacokinetics as they carry out drug metabolism [64].”
• Influence of Tryptophan and Serotonin on Mood and Cognition with a Possible Role of the Gut-Brain Axis (2016, background): “The gut microbiota is primarily found in the large intestine, but smaller numbers can be found throughout the gastrointestinal tract [99].”
• The Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes Ratio: A Relevant Marker of Gut Dysbiosis in Obese Patients? (2020, background): “It plays a crucial role in health maintenance, allowing the metabolism of indigestible dietary components and the synthesis of some vitamins, preventing pathogen colonization, and contributing to the maturation and education of the immune system [1].”
• The human gut microbiota: Metabolism and perspective in obesity (2018, background): “Notably, the large intestine contains more than 70% of all microorganisms in the body, which are usually associated with the health/disease of the host.(11) In addition, the diversity of bacteria is higher in the lumen and lower in the mucus layer.”
• Lipotoxicity and the gut-liver axis in NASH pathogenesis. (2018, background): “This microbiome is not equally distributed along the intestine since the number of species increases from the esophagus to the rectum, ranging from 101 per gram of contents in the upper tract to 1012 per gram of contents in the distal intestine [78].”
• Role of Oxidative Stress in Pathophysiology of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (2018, background): “The composition of the gut microbiota is variable and dynamic during human life, being influenced by several factors including diet, environmental hygiene, and antibiotic use and misuse [79].”