Gut Microbiota and Immune System Interactions

Abstract

Dynamic interactions between gut microbiota and a host’s innate and adaptive immune systems are essential in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and inhibiting inflammation. Gut microbiota metabolizes proteins and complex carbohydrates, synthesizes vitamins, and produces an enormous number of metabolic products that can mediate cross-talk between gut epithelium and immune cells. As a defense mechanism, gut epithelial cells produce a mucosal barrier to segregate microbiota from host immune cells and reduce intestinal permeability. An impaired interaction between gut bacteria and the mucosal immune system can lead to an increased abundance of potentially pathogenic gram-negative bacteria and their associated metabolic changes, disrupting the epithelial barrier and increasing susceptibility to infections. Gut dysbiosis, or negative alterations in gut microbial composition, can also dysregulate immune responses, causing inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance. Over time, chronic dysbiosis and the leakage of microbiota and their metabolic products across the mucosal barrier may increase prevalence of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and a variety of cancers. In this paper, we highlight the pivotal role gut bacteria and their metabolic products (short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)) which play in mucosal immunity.