Jacobs Steve, Payne Carmen, Shaboodien Sara, Kgatla Thato, Pretorius Amy, Jumaar Chrisstoffel, Sanni Olakunle, Butrous Ghazwan, Maarman Gerald
CARMA: Centre for Cardio-Metabolic Research in Africa, Division of Medical Physiology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences Stellenbosch University Cape Town South Africa.
School of Pharmacy, Imperial College of London University of Kent Canterbury UK.
Pulm Circ. 2023 Aug 13;13(3):e12277. doi: 10.1002/pul2.12277. eCollection 2023 Jul.
The microbiota refers to a plethora of microorganisms with a gene pool of approximately three million, which inhabits the human gastrointestinal tract or gut. The latter, not only promotes the transport of nutrients, ions, and fluids from the lumen to the internal environment but is linked with the development of diseases including coronary artery disease, heart failure, and lung diseases. The exact mechanism of how the microbiota achieves crosstalk between itself and distant organs/tissues is not clear, but factors released to other organs may play a role, like inflammatory and genetic factors, and now we highlight melatonin as a novel mediator of the gut-lung crosstalk. Melatonin is present in high concentrations in the gut and the lung and has recently been linked to the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension (PH). In this comprehensive review of the literature, we suggest that melatonin is an important link between the gut microbiota and the development of PH (where suppressed melatonin-crosstalk between the gut and lungs could promote the development of PH). More studies are needed to investigate the link between the gut microbiota, melatonin and PH. Studies could also investigate whether microbiota genes play a role in the epigenetic aspects of PH. This is relevant because, for example, dysbiosis (caused by epigenetic factors) could reduce melatonin signaling between the gut and lungs, reduce subcellular melatonin concentrations in the gut/lungs, or reduce melatonin serum levels secondary to epigenetic factors. This area of research is largely unexplored and further studies are warranted.
微生物群是指大量的微生物，其基因库约有三百万个，栖息于人类胃肠道或肠道中。肠道不仅促进营养物质、离子和液体从肠腔向内部环境的转运，还与包括冠状动脉疾病、心力衰竭和肺部疾病在内的多种疾病的发生发展有关。微生物群如何与远处器官/组织进行相互作用的确切机制尚不清楚，但释放到其他器官的因素可能起到了作用，如炎症和遗传因素，现在我们强调褪黑素是肠-肺相互作用的一种新的介质。褪黑素在肠道和肺部中浓度很高，最近已被证明与肺动脉高压（PH）的发病机制有关。在这篇全面的文献综述中，我们认为褪黑素是肠道微生物群与PH发生发展之间的重要联系（肠道和肺部之间褪黑素相互作用的抑制可能会促进PH的发展）。需要更多的研究来探讨肠道微生物群、褪黑素与PH之间的联系。研究还可以调查微生物群基因是否在PH的表观遗传方面发挥作用。这很重要，例如，生态失调（由表观遗传因素引起）可能会减少肠道和肺部之间的褪黑素信号传导，降低肠道/肺部亚细胞水平的褪黑素浓度，或因表观遗传因素导致血清褪黑素水平降低。这一研究领域在很大程度上尚未被探索，因此有必要进行进一步的研究。
