Authors: Francesca Turroni Marco Ventura Ludovica F Buttó Sabrina Duranti Paul W O’Toole Mary O’Connell Motherway Douwe van Sinderen
Publish Date: 2013/03/21
Volume: 71, Issue: 2, Pages: 183-203
Abstract
The human gut represents a highly complex ecosystem which is densely colonized by a myriad of microorganisms that influence the physiology immune function and health status of the host Among the many members of the human gut microbiota there are microorganisms that have coevolved with their host and that are believed to exert healthpromoting or probiotic effects Probiotic bacteria isolated from the gut and other environments are commercially exploited and although there is a growing list of health benefits provided by the consumption of such probiotics their precise mechanisms of action have essentially remained elusive Genomics approaches have provided exciting new opportunities for the identification of probiotic effector molecules that elicit specific responses to influence the physiology and immune function of their human host In this review we describe the current understanding of the intriguing relationships that exist between the human gut and key members of the gut microbiota such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli discussed here as prototypical groups of probiotic microorganismsThis work was financially supported by the Cariparma Bank Foundation to MV and by a FEMS Advanced Fellowship 2011 and an IRCSET Embark postdoctoral fellowship to FT This work was also financially supported by a PhD fellowship Spinner 2013 Regione Emilia Romagna to SD DvS MOCM PWOT and LFB are members of The Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre DvS is also a member of the Alimentary Glycoscience Research Cluster both funded by Science Foundation Ireland SFI through the Irish Government’s National Development Plan Grant numbers 07/CE/B1368 and 08/SRC/B1393 respectively MOCM is the recipient of a HRB postdoctoral fellowship Grant No PDTM/20011/9
Keywords: