“From the numerous studies that have examined the lung microbiota of patients with asthma, two provocative observations have emerged. First, the development of allergic asthma is associated with altered microbiota in childhood. Second, differences in lung microbiota are associated with patients’ clinical course and responsiveness to therapy and may define an understudied disease variant.”
“Manipulation of the gastrointestinal microbiome—by antibiotics or changes in diet—can profoundly alter the host’s CD4 T cell–mediated allergic airway response.”
“Probiotics reduce pulmonary exacerbations rate in patients with CF. Probiotics may have a preventive potential for pulmonary deterioration in Cystic Fibrosis patients.”
“The fact that microbes are known to cause inflammation and tissue damage suggests that, in the context of chronic inflammatory airway disease, the composition and function of the pulmonary microbiome present important information in defining outcomes of airway disease.”
Lung Microbiome in Healthy and Diseased Individuals
Analysis of the Lung Microbiome in the “Healthy” Smoker and in COPD
The Lung Microbiome: New Principles For Respiratory Bacteriology In Health And Disease
“There is a growing emphasis on the relationship held between our gut microbiome and health/disease, including brain health and disorders of the central nervous system. Changes to [the microbiota-gut-brain axis] can lead to a broad spectrum of physiological and behavioral effects.”
“Increasingly, the human microbiome has attracted the attention of neuroscientists and psychiatrists for the potential role that microbiota play in influencing brain function, behavior, and mental health. In fact, the development of the brain itself in growing infants has been shown to be influenced by the microbiome.”
“…Scientists introduced a single unique form of bacterium in the gut of lab mice and found that it caused an increase in anxiety-like behavior. In later studies, transplantation of the fecal microbiome from one mouse displaying a certain type of behaviors to another resulted in the recipient exhibiting the behaviors of the donor.”
Microbiota and Neurological Disorders: A Gut Feeling
Early Responses to Intestinal Infection
“Accumulating evidence supports a relationship between the complexity and diversity of the gut microbiota and host diseases.”
“There is a growing amount of clinical evidence supporting the theory that the gut microbiome and its metabolites have the potential for utilization as therapeutic and preventative targets for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.”
“Changes in gut microbiota composition associated with disease, referred to as dysbiosis, are linked to serious pathologies such as hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.”
The Gut Microbiome in Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease
Gut Microbiota in Cardiovascular Health and Disease
The Gut Microbiota: An Emerging Risk Factor for Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease
“The skin is an ecosystem containing millions of diverse micro-organisms, most of those organisms are harmless or even provide wide-reaching benefits to the host by such functions including protection against invasion from pathogenic or harmful organisms. Molecular approaches to characterizing microbial diversity have dramatically changed our view of the skin microbiome, subsequently raising many important questions about the host–microorganism relationship and its relevance to skin disease.”
“The relationship between intestinal bacteria and its development of skin related disease is an area that we are only beginning to understand. However, recent research in the field of dermatology has suggested that there is a link between skin disease (specifically the link towards psoriasis, rosacea, and dermatitis) and the various microbiota found in the gut.”
“At the turn of the 20th century, dermatologists John H. Stokes and Donald M. Pillsbury founded the concept of the gut-brain-skin axis. Only recently have we been able to uncover the mysteries of how our colonies of gut microbes can affect and even influence inflammation, oxidative stress, lipid content and other profound implications in acne research.”
The Gut Microbiome as a Major Regulator of the Gut-Skin Axis
“Scientific research has shown that the microbes living within the gut are involved in regulating many aspects of human physiology. Now, recent studies have opened our understanding of how those microbes play a role in the body by regulating the circulation of hormone levels, specifically in this case, estrogen.”
“Researchers show that a bacterial species converts glucocorticoids into androgens, a group of male steroid hormones. The implication is that the host endocrine system may not be the only source of androgens and other regulatory molecules: The gut microbiome may be another.”
“Now, there are clues linking the existence of communication between bacteria and the endocrine system, including a study conducted in 2003 concluding that host hormones can affect bacterial gene expression, which in turn can have consequences on their host.”
Estrogen Deficiency and the Origin of Obesity during Menopause
The Role of Estrogen in Cardiovascular Disease
“Researchers… analyzed the influence of intestinal bacteria on sugar and lipid metabolism. They found that certain bile acids that are produced by intestinal bacteria could influence blood sugar levels and lipid concentrations as well as part of their molecular mechanisms.”
“Researchers are expecting to find future treatment options for metabolic diseases such as diabetes by targeting the intestinal bacteria that produce these specific strains of bile acids in order to maintain blood sugar homeostasis.”
“…Existing data strongly suggest that the gut microbiota affect glucose homeostasis. Possible mechanisms linking the gut microbiota to glucose homeostasis may include increased intestinal permeability, low-grade endotoxemia, changes in the production of SCFAs or branched-chain amino acids, alterations in bile acid metabolism, and/or effects on the secretion of gut hormones.”
Artificial Sweeteners Induce Glucose Intolerance by Altering the Gut Microbiota
Obesity, Diabetes, and Gut Microbiota
The Gut Microbiome as a Target for Prevention and Treatment of… Type 2 Diabetes
“A recent study… compared microbes taken from four sets of human twins. In each set, one twin was lean and the other was overweight. The key difference that they found between the pairs of twins was that their bodies held a vastly different microbial balance.
Then, scientists introduced the microbes from each twin into different groups of mice that had been raised in a germ free environment. They found that the overweight microbes from the human resulted in overweight mice, even though both sets of mice were fed identical diets.”
“A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that overweight women who were put on a calorie-restricted diet and given a probiotic supplement for 12 weeks showed significantly greater weight loss than those given a placebo.”
The Human Gut Microbiome: A Review of the Effect of Obesity and Surgically Induced Weight Loss
An Evaluation of the Effects of Lactobacillus Ingluviei on Body Weight, the Intestinal Microbiome and Metabolism in Mice
“The various gut microbiota that live inside us have been shown to play an integral role in the introduction, training and function of the immune system. However, in high-income countries, the overuse of antibiotics, drastic changes in diet, and other changes to the microbiota has created a lack of the resilience and diversity required to house balanced immune responses.”
“Research indicates that a significant portion of your immune system is found in the GI tract, the part of the digestive system that consists of the stomach and intestines. This central hub for your microbiome can vastly influence the way your body reacts to various threats and potential illness.”
The Lung Microbiome, Immunity and the Pathogenesis of Chronic Lung Disease
Interactions Between the Microbiota and the Immune System
The Interplay Between the Gut Microbiota and the Immune System
“The human gut microbiota provide important protective, structural, and metabolic functions to increase host health. These include the processing and digestion of food, the synthesis of vitamins, and other responsibilities that extend to more than just the GI tract. Considering the wide reaching effect that various microbes have on organs and systems in the body, it can be said that the gut microbiota resembles an endocrine organ of its own.”
“Researchers show that a bacterial species converts glucocorticoids into androgens, a group of male steroid hormones. The implication is that the host endocrine system may not be the only source of androgens and other regulatory molecules: The gut microbiome may be another.”
How Gut Microbes Talk to Organs: The Role of Endocrine and Nervous Routes
The Gut Microbial Endocrine Organ: Bacterially-Derived Signals Driving Cardiometabolic Diseases
“We here present the first association results of the gut microbiome with osteoarthritic pain and severity in both the knee and hip joints. This may provide potential validation of the relationship between the gut microbiome, low grade inflammation in the joint, and OsteoArthritis.”
“Links have been demonstrated between the gut microbiota and joint inflammation in murine models of arthritis but have received little attention in human patients. Recent work has nevertheless demonstrated substantial alterations in the gut microbiota in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or spondyloarthritis, with differences across diagnoses and studies.”
“The last decade has witnessed an explosion of studies evaluating the impact of the human microbiota on a variety of disease states. The microbiota can affect diseases in multiple ways, including through abnormalities in the diversity and contents of the microbiota, as well as by acting as targets of immunologic dysregulation. Herein, evidence that the microbiota in spondyloarthritis is both altered and abnormally targeted by the immune system will be presented.”
Microbiota and Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis: An Interwoven Link
Efficacy and Safety of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation