The Dynamic Microbial Landscape of the Intestine and the Impact on Probiotic Therapy

Abstract

A diverse, symbiotic ecosystem of microbes resides in our gut, contributing to the complexity of human health. As the most microbe rich area of the human body, the gut microbiota provides a number of important physiological functions including metabolism, immunity, and protection from pathogens. Environmental factors, especially nutrition and dietary-components, can influence or even completely alter the microbial landscape and its functions. Currently, it is thought that under certain, but unknown, genetic and environmental contexts these changes can cause or exacerbate chronic inflammatory diseases. While using probiotics to treat disease seems like an easy solution, both basic and clinical data have demonstrated mixed results. Thus, it is imperative to reexamine probiotics in the complex context of both a healthy and diseased microbiome along with associated factors such as diet.