Chronic inflammation linked to such ills as heart disease, cancer and diabetes may stem from a breakdown in communication between the microbes in our guts and cells involved in the immune and metabolic processes, according to an Oregon State University researcher.
In a new report in clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology, Dr. Natalia Shulzhenko writes that a better understanding of that communication process could one day lead to personalized therapies aimed at rebalancing individuals' microbiota.
A little-known fact, she says, is that people's intestines contain more immune cells that the entire rest of the body, playing a big role in immune function.
"In a healthy person," Shulzhenko says, "these microbes in the gut stimulate the immune system as needed, and it in turn talks back. There's an increasing disruption of these microbes from modern lifestyle, diet, overuse of antibiotics and other issues. With that disruption, the conversation is breaking down."
Shulzhenko, who collaborated with researchers in OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Pharmacy, is a physician and assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
– Katy Muldoon