Sahlgrenska Center for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research/Wallenberg Laboratory and Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Gothenburg, S-413 45 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Nutr Rev. 2012 Aug;70 Suppl 1:S14-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00496.x.
The human gut is home to vast numbers of bacteria (gut microbiota), which outnumber the cells in the human body by an order of magnitude. The gut microbiota has coevolved with humans and can be considered an organ of similar size as the liver, containing more than 1,000 cell types (bacterial species) and encoding 150-fold more genes than are present in the human genome. Accordingly, the gut microbiota may have profound effects on various host responses, either directly or indirectly, by modifying food components or endogenously produced molecules into signaling molecules. Recent findings suggest that an altered gut microbial composition is associated with inflammatory bowel disease and obesity, indicating that the gut microbiota should be considered a contributing factor in several common diseases.
人类肠道是大量细菌（肠道微生物群）的家园，其数量超过人体细胞的数量级。肠道微生物群与人类共同进化，可以被视为与肝脏具有相似大小的器官，包含超过 1000 种细胞类型（细菌种类），并且编码的基因数量是人类基因组中存在的基因数量的 150 倍。因此，肠道微生物群可能通过将食物成分或内源性产生的分子转化为信号分子，直接或间接地对各种宿主反应产生深远影响。最近的发现表明，肠道微生物组成的改变与炎症性肠病和肥胖有关，这表明肠道微生物群应该被视为几种常见疾病的一个致病因素。
