Gut Microbiome in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic immune-mediated disease affecting the gastrointestinal tract, affecting over 10 million people worldwide. IBD is thought to develop due to interactions between environmental, microbial, and immune-mediated factors in a genetically susceptible host. In patients with IBD, there is a breakdown of the multiple strategies that the immune system has evolved to promote the separation between its response to symbiotic microorganisms, pathogenic microorganisms, and the intestinal epithelium.
The gut microbiome has been proposed as one of the key players in the IBD pathogenesis -gene mutations, altered composition and structure, dysbiosis, and microbiome-driven immune responses of gut microbiome have been found among patients with IBD. Despite the emerging evidence in microbiome-immune interactions and epidemiologic observations implicating microbiome-modulating risk factors, the exact cause of IBD remains indistinct, and the role of gut microbiome in IBD pathogenesis is hugely unrevealed. Understanding the role of gut microbiome and the complex interactions between intestinal microorganisms and the host may provide crucial insights into the pathogenesis of IBD as well as new avenues of diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of the disease.
This Article Collection solicits articles to understand the role of gut microbiome in IBD and its related pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of IBD.