Role of gut microbiota in intestinal wound healing and barrier function

Abstract

The mammalian intestine harbors a highly complex and abundant ensemble of bacteria that flourish in a nutrient-rich environment while profoundly influencing many aspects of host biology. The intestine coevolved with its resident microbes in a manner where the mucosa developed a barrier function to segregate the resident microbes from the rest of the body, and yet paradoxically, allowing integration of microbial signals for the host benefit. In this review, we provided a comprehensive overview of why the gut microbiota is key to the efficient development and maintenance of the intestinal barrier. We also highlighted how a destabilized equilibrium between gut microbiota and the host may eventuate in a wide range of intestinal diseases characterized by the disrupted intestinal barrier. Finally, the review delineated how microenvironmental changes in the injured mucosa result in an enrichment of a pro-regenerating consortium of bacteria, which augments mucosal wound repair and restoration of barrier functions.

Keywords: gut microbiota; intestinal barrier function; intestinal inflammation; intestinal wound healing; microbiome; mucosal wound microenvironment.

Figure 1.

A multidisciplinary approach in bioinformatics and experimental biology to discover genes, pathways, and molecules important for dissecting the biomolecular cross-talk at the host-microbiome interface. Outer circle depicts the workflow of meta’omics study.

Figure 2.

Host-microbiome interface of the mucosal wounds: dynamic changes in physiological and inflammatory responses of the wound microenvironment drive a spatiotemporal alteration of the microbial community structure resulting in the enrichment of a mucosa-associated microbial consortium, which in turn augments re-epithelialization of the mucosa, achieved by enhanced migration and subsequent proliferation of epithelial cells.