It is now well established that gut flora and chronic liver diseases are closely interrelated. This association is most evident at late stages of the disease: cirrhosis and impaired liver function are associated with intestinal bacterial overgrowth, small bowel dysmotility, increased gut permeability, and decreased immunological defenses, all of which promote bacterial translocation from the gu...

The gastrointestinal tract is continuously exposed to foreign antigens such as those derived from food and microbiota of gut. Gut flora is an important entity of human body that plays crucial role in healthy immune system and various immuno-logical disorders. Exploration of interactions between gut flora and immune system is an important area of current investigations. Cytokines and chemokines ...

Recently, there is a growing interest of research on the relationship of gut-microbiota and neurological disorders. Increasing number of findings suggests the broader role of gut-microbiota in the modulation of various physiological and pathological conditions and it is now well recognized that a bidirectional communication between brain and gut-microbiota is essential to maintain homeostasis. ...

The overall complexity of the microbial communities in the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of mammals has hindered observations of dynamics and interactions of individual bacterial populations. However, such information is crucial for understanding the diverse disease-causing and protective roles that gut microbiota play in their hosts. Here, we determine the spatial distribution, interanimal vari...

The gut microflora dysbiosis has been closely related with the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this study, the effect of polysaccharides from Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat on the gut microbiota was evaluated by ulcerative colitis (UC) rat model. Physiological and pathological analyses suggested that Chrysanthemum polysaccharides possessed notably protective effects on UC in vivo. Based on...

Gut microbial communities can greatly affect host health by modulating the host's immune system. For many important insects, however, the relationship between the gut microbiota and immune function remains poorly understood. Here, we test whether the gut microbial symbionts of the honey bee can induce expression of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a crucial component of insect innate immunity. We...

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) can cause severe vision loss among the elderly. Genetic risk factors for AMD include several variants related to the immune system and lipid metabolism. Obesity is a well-known predisposing factor for nvAMD but how this metabolic disorder modulates angiogenesis in the posterior eye segment was largely unknown. In this issue of EMBO Molecular ...