Nutrients 2011, 3, 637-682; doi:10.3390/nu3060637 OPEN ACCESS nutrients ISSN 2072-6643 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients Review Gut Microbiota and Inflammation Asa Hakansson and Goran Molin * Food Hygiene, Division of Applied Nutrition, Department of Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition, Lund University, PO Box 124, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +46-46-222-8327; Fax: +46-46-222-4532. Received: 15 April 2011; in revised form: 19 May 2011 / Accepted: 24 May 2011 / Published: 3 June 2011 Abstract: Systemic and local inflammation in relation to the resident microbiota of the human gastro-intestinal (GI) tract and administration of probiotics are the main themes of the present review. The dominating taxa of the human GI tract and their potential for aggravating or suppressing inflammation are described. The review focuses on human trials with probiotics and does not include in vitro studies and animal experimental models. The applications of probiotics considered are systemic immune-modulation, the metabolic syndrome, liver injury, inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer and radiation-induced enteritis. When the major genomic differences between different types of probiotics are taken into account, it is to be expected that the human body can respond differently to the different species and strains of probiotics. This fact is often neglected in discussions of the outcome of clinical trials with probiotics. Keywords: probiotics; inflammation; gut microbiota 1. Inflammation Inflammation is a defence reaction of the body against injury. The word inflammation originates from the Latin word ―inflammatio‖ which means fire, and traditionally inflammation is characterised by redness, swelling, pain, heat and impaired body functions.