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Review
. 2018 Oct 11;25(1):73.
doi: 10.1186/s12929-018-0476-7.

Visceral pain: gut microbiota, a new hope?

Matteo M Pusceddu  1 , Melanie G Gareau  2
Affiliations
Review

Visceral pain: gut microbiota, a new hope?

Matteo M Pusceddu et al. J Biomed Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Visceral pain is a complex and heterogeneous disorder, which can range from the mild discomfort of indigestion to the agonizing pain of renal colic. Regulation of visceral pain involves the spinal cord as well as higher order brain structures. Recent findings have linked the microbiota to gastrointestinal disorders characterized by abdominal pain suggesting the ability of microbes to modulate visceral hypersensitivity and nociception to pain.

Main body: In this review we describe the neuroanatomical basis of visceral pain signaling and the existing evidence of its manipulation exerted by the gut microbiota. We included an updated overview of the potential therapeutic effects of dietary intervention, specifically probiotics and prebiotics, in alleviating hypersensitivity to visceral pain stimuli.

Conclusions: The gut microbiota dramatically impacts normal visceral pain sensation and affects the mechanisms mediating visceral nociception. Furthermore, manipulation of the gut microbiota using prebiotics and probiotics plays a potential role in the regulation of visceral pain disorders.

Keywords: Colitis; FGID; IBS; Microbiome; Microbiota-gut-brain axis; Prebiotics; Probiotics; Visceral pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

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Not applicable.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Gut microbiota-host interaction. Schematic representing the different ways of interaction between the microbiota and host. Painful stimuli sensed by nociceptors expressed at the nerve terminations project signals onto spinal nociceptive neurons located in the lateral neck of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, which convey information to supraspinal centers. Here, the signal reaches several brain areas such as the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, and cortex, which in concert code the afferent information and generate an efferent signal back to the periphery. The microbiota, which resides in the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract, can influence several factors involved in pain perception and its signaling such as the vagus nerve, cytokine production, corticosterone secretion, short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and microbial metabolite release
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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