Microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract: Friend or foe?

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Senchukova, Marina A
Copyright Year	2023
Abstract	The gut microbiota is currently considered an external organ of the human body that provides important mechanisms of metabolic regulation and protection. The gut microbiota encodes over 3 million genes, which is approximately 150 times more than the total number of genes present in the human genome. Changes in the qualitative and quantitative composition of the microbiome lead to disruption in the synthesis of key bacterial metabolites, changes in intestinal barrier function, and inflammation and can cause the development of a wide variety of diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular issues, neurological disorders and oncological concerns. In this review, I consider issues related to the role of the microbiome in the regulation of intestinal barrier function, its influence on physiological and pathological processes occurring in the body, and potential new therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring the gut microbiome. Herewith, it is important to understand that the gut microbiota and human body should be considered as a single biological system, where change of one element will inevitably affect its other components. Thus, the study of the impact of the intestinal microbiota on health should be considered only taking into account numerous factors, the role of which has not yet been fully elucidated.
ISSN	10079327
Volume Number	29
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9850957
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	36683718
Journal	World Journal of Gastroenterology [World J. Gastroenterol]
e-ISSN	22192840
DOI	10.3748/wjg.v29.i1.19
Language	English
Publisher	Baishideng Publishing Group Inc
Publisher Date	2023-01-01
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Subject Keyword	Gut microbiota Bacterial metabolites Intestinal barrier Dysbiosis Fecal microbiota transplantation Probiotics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Gastroenterology