Colon Controlled Microbiome Function: Role, Impact, Structure, Pathogenetic Significance, Therapeutic and Diagnostic Management
Dr. Alexander Swidsinski E-Mail
Director of Molecular-genetic Laboratory for Polymicrobial Infections and Biofilms, CCM, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
The intestinal microbiota is generally regarded as something brought in and acting on its own.
Using next generation sequencing and metagenomics abundant data have been collected over the last 10-20 years illuminating the decisive impact of gut microbiome on human health and disease. However, the vast majority of these studies regard intestinal microbiota as independent players shaping and acting within colonic habitat on their own. This attitude hampers our understanding of mutual relationship leaving many questions unanswered:
1. Why concentrations of microorganisms in the colon are unprecedented, cannot be found anywhere in nature or replicated in vitro; regardless of the growth conditions chosen?
2. How is it possible that the composition of the colon microbiome remains extremely stable for months and even years in the main component, regardless of diet changes and feeding regimes?
3. Why and how each vertebrate species maintain its own microbial profile, even when given similar food products?
4. What exactly happens to the microbiome and its individual components in a specific colon dysfunction, how and why?
5. How can individual disorders of the colon microbiome be prevented or treated?
The aim of the proposed topic is to reveal the mechanisms by which the colon maintains and shapes its microbiome and its impact on health and disease. This special issue will include primary research papers and reviews.
Keywords: polymicrobials, mucus barrier, IBD, colonic bioreactor, colonic microbiome