Le rôle de l’intestin et du microbiote dans les fonctions métaboliques

Overview & Synopsis

The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the health of the host, providing energy and vitamins from the fermentation of food undigested by the host's gut enzymes. Accordingly, germ-free animals suffer from serious health problems. Bacterial metabolites enter the host metabolism via their metabolism in the enteric/colonic mucosa. Thus, short chain fatty acids and succinate, the major bacterial metabolites produced, e.g., from fiber-enriched diets, are essentially metabolized by the gut mucosa and do not appear in the peripheral blood. The respective importance for host health of changes in the microbiota genetic composition and in the microbiota function in response to specific foods is the matter of discussion. Arguments are made to suggest that the gut microbiota is a vital bioreactor with stable function and variable composition. This would have enabled it and its host to adapt to variable food sources, which may have played a role in evolution.