The role of microbiota-mitochondria crosstalk in pathogenesis and therapy of intestinal diseases

The interaction between mitochondria and gut microbiota plays a critical role in intestinal physiological homeostasis. In this kind of homeostasis, intestinal epithelial hypoxia helps microbiota to be dominated by obligate anaerobes, who provide their benefit metabolites for the host, such as short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). In addition, emerging studies suggest that microbial signals to the mitochondria of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) could alter mitochondrial ultrastructure and its metabolic function, induce inflammasome activation and disrupt epithelial hypoxia. Conditions that alter the mitochondria could lead to intestinal epithelium inflammation and oxygenation, both of which would drive an expansion of facultative anaerobes and exacerbate the imbalance of mitochondria-microbiota crosstalk. This phenomenon has proved to be associated with the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Therefore, in this review, we summarized the recent process on the interaction between mitochondria of IECs and gut microbiota in the case of both GI physiological homeostasis and diseases, and potential therapeutic interventions targeting mitochondria-microbiota crosstalk in GI diseases.