The Microbiome and the Liver: The Basics

Abstract

The relationships between the microbiota and other aspects of normal human biology continue to be explored. Indeed, the volume of information relating to the interplay between the host and the microbiota has grown exponentially-especially with the advent of ever-improving techniques for rapidly sequencing and identifying bacterial populations and their functions. The gut is initially sterile at birth and colonization and dynamic changes occur during infancy and early childhood in order to establish a mature microbiome. The mature microbiome has direct and important interactions with host metabolism. Bacterial translocation from the gut microbiome is thought to be a key driver of inflammation in liver disease and changes in tolerance to these bacteria drive inflammation in the liver and elsewhere in the host. As we are better able to describe the composition and functional properties of the microbiome, the range of its impact on the homeostatic functions of the human body and implications for disease continue to be extended.