The involvement of gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis: Potential for therapy

Over the past recent years, a great number of studies have been directed toward the evaluation of the human\r\nhost–gut microbiota interaction, with the goal to progress the understanding of the etiology of several complex\r\ndiseases. Alterations in the intestinal microbiota associatedwith inflammatory bowel disease are well supported\r\nby literature data and have been widely accepted by the research community. The concomitant implementation\r\nof high-throughput sequencing techniques to analyze and characterize the composition of the intestinal\r\nmicrobiota has reinforced the view that inflammatory bowel disease results from altered interactions between\r\ngut microbes and the mucosal immune system and has raised the possibility that some form of modulation of\r\nthe intestinal microbiota may constitute a potential therapeutic basis for the disease. The aim of this review is\r\nto describe the changes of gutmicrobiota in inflammatory bowel disease, focusing the attention on its involvement\r\nin the pathogenesis of the disease, and to review and discuss the therapeutic potential to modify the intestinal\r\nmicrobial population with antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation.