The Emerging Role of Microbiota in Health and Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

The human body is a living environment for microorganisms; therefore, it should be considered as a kind of ecosystem. The complex interactions between the host and the microbiota, through physical and chemical signals, can actively influence the physiological processes, morphological structure and expression of host genes. The condition of the human body depends on the correct microbiota–host system balance. Disturbing this delicate balance leads to dysbiosis, and may result in, among other things, violation of the integrity and increased permeability of the mucous membrane of the digestive tract. Dysbiosis plays an important role both in the pathogenesis and during inflammatory (chronic inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract, including Crohn's disease), metabolic (type 2 diabetes, obesity), neurological, and mental diseases, such as depression, autism spectrum or anxiety.

The aim of this Special Issue of Life is to approximate the role of natural microbiota in maintaining human health. We invite scientists dealing with the mechanisms of action of human microbiota and the impact of microorganisms on the development and course of civilization diseases to submit their work. The following types of studies will be extremely valuable: review and original studies regarding the determination of the core human microbiota, determining the correlation between changes/disorders of the microbiota structure and human health, linking the microbiome with human genotype and ethnicity, type of diet, living environment, socio-economic conditions and health status, as well as the development of standards for diagnostic and bioinformatics techniques necessary for research on the human microbiome.

Prof. Dr. Edyta Juszczuk-Kubiak
Dr. Katarzyna Góralska
Guest Editors

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