微生物與慢性阻塞性肺疾病

The Microbiota and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases

全球慢性阻塞性肺疾病日趨嚴重，預計2030年將佔全球疾病致死率第三位，其致病因子除長期吸菸外亦受其它原因影響，直至最近，肺及上呼吸道之菌叢才被證明為內毒素及彈性蛋白酶所引起慢性阻塞性肺疾病之重要因子，至於腸道菌叢是否可引起慢性阻塞性肺疾病目前並不清楚，未來需要更多關於腸道及上呼吸道之菌叢與慢性阻塞性肺疾病之研究以釐清其關聯性。

The chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is becoming a more and more serious global lung disease that causes health problems during the recent years. At the year of 2030, COPD is expected to rank as the third highest disease causing human mortality worldwide. Besides smoking, other environmental and host factors may also involve the cause of COPD. Among these, the lung and respiratory tract microbiota are emphasized as close associations to the pathogenesis of COPD. Furthermore, only until recently the lung and respiratory tract microbiota were reported to be a causative effect on COPD induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and elastase caused chronic lung inflammations. By contrast, whether the gut microbiota may involve initiation of COPD pathogenesis remains not characterized. There is necessity that more in-depth and detailed studies have to be performed to clarify the relationship between microbiota and the development of COPD.