Over 70 years have passed since dermatologists John H. Stokes and Donald M. Pillsbury first proposed a gastrointestinal mechanism for the overlap between depression, anxiety and skin conditions such as acne. Stokes and Pillsbury hypothesized that emotional states might alter the normal intestinal microflora, increase intestinal permeability and contribute to systemic inflammation. Among the rem...

Aim. Evaluation of the impact of gut microflora on the pathophysiology of MS. Results. The etiopathogenesis of MS is not fully known. Gut microbiota may be of a great importance in the pathogenesis of MS, since recent findings suggest that substitutions of certain microbial population in the gut can lead to proinflammatory state, which can lead to MS in humans. In contrast, other commensal bact...

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) represents the largest interface between the human organism and the external environment. In the lumen and upper part of the mucus layer, this organ hosts an enormous number of microorganisms whose composition affects the functions of the epithelial barrier and the gut immune system. Consequentially, the microorganisms in the GIT influence the health status of t...

The composition and function of intestinal microflora are emerging as integral to both health and disease. During critical illness the normal microbiota are rapidly replaced by pathogenic species as a result of both the physiologic stress itself and the use of antibiotics. In this report, the authors use fecal pH as a surrogate marker to determine the predictive value of the functional output o...

The gut immune system has the challenge of responding to pathogens while remaining relatively unresponsive to food antigens and the commensal microflora. In the developed world, this ability appears to be breaking down, with chronic inflammatory diseases of the gut commonplace in the apparent absence of overt infections. In both mouse and man, mutations in genes that control innate immune recog...

Aberrant immune response and changes in the gut microflora are the main causes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (Pglyrp1, Pglyrp2, Pglyrp3, and Pglyrp4) are bactericidal innate immunity proteins that maintain normal gut microbiome, protect against experimental colitis, and are associated with IBD in humans. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 (Nod2...

Gut microflora contribute greatly to immune and nutritive functions and act as a physical barrier against pathogenic organisms across the gut mucosa. Critical illness disrupts the balance between host and gut microflora, facilitating colonization, overgrowth, and translocation of pathogens and microbial products across intestinal mucosal barrier and causing systemic inflammatory response syndro...

Autism of the regressive variety is selected as an example of the importance of intestinal bacterial microflora in disease other than classical infection. Our studies have indicated that intestinal bacteria play a role in this disease since it responds to oral vancomycin, a drug that is not absorbed from the GI tract. Pyrosequencing studies document an abnormal gut microflora in regressive auti...