Associations between diet, gut microbiota and markers of CRC risk

Background Recent advances in our understanding of the contributions of gut microbiota to host metabolism have renewed research interest in how distortions in microbiota activities correlate with health status. While extensive microbiota surveys have already revealed the complexity of microbiota dynamics there is a need to better understand mechanisms through which microbiota can affect host metabolism. We have recently shown that the amount of energy available to the host after intake of resistant maltodextrin varies among individuals and is associated with microbiota. Here we hypothesized that microbiota i) is associated with dietary habits, ii) correlates with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk and iii) can affect the methylation status in nearby gut epithelium, which might be a mechanism contributing to colorectal carcinogenesis.