Gut Microbiota in Intestinal and Liver Disease

It is known that the gut microbiota, the numerically vast and taxonomically diverse microbial communities that thrive in a symbiotic fashion within our alimentary tract, can affect the normal physiology of the gastrointestinal tract and liver. Further, disturbances of the microbiota community structure from both endogenous and exogenous influences as well as the failure of host responsive mechanisms have been implicated in a variety of disease processes. Mechanistically, alterations in intestinal permeability and dysbiosis of the microbiota can result in inflammation, immune activation, and exposure to xenobiotic influences. Additionally, the gut and liver are continually exposed to small molecule products of the microbiota with proinflammatory, gene regulatory, and oxidative properties. Long-term coevolution has led to tolerance and incorporation of these influences into normal physiology and homeostasis; conversely, changes in this equilibrium from either the host or the microbial side can result in a wide variety of immune, inflammatory, metabolic, and neoplastic intestinal and hepatic disorders.