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Inside the microbial and immune labyrinth: Gut microbes: friends or fiends?

Nature Medicine volume 16, pages 1195–1197 (2010)Cite this article

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There is now a general consensus that the two major inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, arise from an abnormal immune response to one or more bacterial components of the very rich community of commensal flora in the large bowel and the more distal parts of the small bowel1. Theoretically, this abnormal response can have two origins: an increased proinflammatory response to a bacterial component or a decreased regulatory response, which may lead to an excessive effector immune response. In this context, IBD research has recently focused on identifying organisms or components in the gut microflora that facilitate or thwart one of these disease mechanisms.

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Figure 1: Regulation of colitis by PSA through the induction of Treg cells.

Marina Corral

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Warren Strober is in the Mucosal Immunity Section, Laboratory of Host Defenses, US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.,

    Warren Strober

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  1. Warren Strober
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Correspondence to Warren Strober.

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The author declares no competing financial interests.

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Strober, W. Inside the microbial and immune labyrinth: Gut microbes: friends or fiends?. Nat Med 16, 1195–1197 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1110-1195

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