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The resilience of the intestinal microbiota influences health and disease

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 15, pages 630–638 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The composition of the intestinal microbiota varies among individuals and throughout development, and is dependent on host and environmental factors. However, although the microbiota is constantly exposed to environmental challenges, its composition and function in an individual are stable against perturbations, as microbial communities are resilient and resistant to change. The maintenance of a beneficial microbiota requires a homeostatic equilibrium within microbial communities, and also between the microorganisms and the intestinal interface of the host. The resilience of the healthy microbiota protects us from dysbiosis-related diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or metabolic disorder. By contrast, a resilient dysbiotic microbiota may cause disease. In this Opinion article, we propose that microbial resilience has a key role in health and disease. We will discuss the concepts and mechanisms of microbial resilience against dietary, antibiotic or bacteriotherapy-induced perturbations and the implications for human health.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of resilience phenomena in health and disease.
Figure 2: Conceptual elements that govern the stability of the intestinal ecosystem.
Figure 3: Mechanisms of resilience.
Figure 4: Faecal microbiota transplantation as a perturbation to a resilient dysbiotic community.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; grants CRC1182 C2 and CRC877 B9), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the e:Med framework ('sysINFLAME'; grant 01ZX1306), the Cluster of Excellence 'Inflammation at Interfaces' (grant ExC 306) and SYSCID (a systems medicine approach to chronic inflammatory diseases) in the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 733100. The authors express that this article represents an opinionated perspective rather than a systematic review. The authors apologize to those researchers whose important contribution to the field could not be cited owing to space constraints.

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  1. Felix Sommer, Jacqueline Moltzau Anderson, Richa Bharti and Philip Rosenstiel are at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Christian Albrechts University and University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Rosalind-Franklin-Straße 12, 24105 Kiel, Germany.,

    Felix Sommer, Jacqueline Moltzau Anderson, Richa Bharti & Philip Rosenstiel

  2. Jeroen Raes is at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Belgium; and at the Department of Bioengineering Sciences, Rega Institute, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium; at the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), Center for Microbiology, Leuven 3000, Research Group of Microbiology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels 1050, Belgium.,

    Jeroen Raes

  3. at the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), Center for Microbiology, Leuven 3000, Belgium,

    Jeroen Raes

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Sommer, F., Anderson, J., Bharti, R. et al. The resilience of the intestinal microbiota influences health and disease. Nat Rev Microbiol 15, 630–638 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.58

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