腸道菌叢在人體免疫系統所扮演的角色

The Role of Gut Microbiota in the Human Immune System

由於次世代定序技術的成熟，與生物資訊方法的進步，讓檢體中微生物的DNA序列可以容易地被分析出來，而這樣的進展也讓醫學界有機會一窺人體腸道中的腸道菌叢，進一步瞭解腸道菌叢對人體健康與疾病的影響。近年來眾多的臨床醫學研究結果，顯示腸道菌叢與發炎性腸道疾病、氣喘、過敏、異位性皮膚炎等疾病的發生具有關聯性，這也代表腸道菌叢在人體免疫系統的調控扮演一定的角色。加上腸道菌相是否平衡，以及腸道菌與宿主間交互作用是否正常，也被認為是影響人體腸道健康的原因。目前臨床研究已成功地利用糞菌移植治療腸道發炎與腹瀉的疾病，因此未來也有機會利用腸道菌叢來治療其他免疫相關的疾病，而這些嘗試都將為醫學界帶來嶄新的免疫療法。

Along with the maturing of next-generation sequencing technology and the improvement of bioinformatics methods, DNA sequences of microorganisms from various specimens can be easily analyzed. Such progress also allows the medical community to have a glimpse of human gut microbiota, and promotes further understanding of the impact of gut microbiota on human health and disease. In recent years, numerous clinical studies have shown that gut microbiota is related to the occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, allergies, atopic dermatitis, etc. This also means that the regulation of gut microbiota in human immune system plays a certain role. In addition, the source of the impact to a healthy human gut may be due to the balance between gut microbiota and proper interaction with the host. Clinical studies at present have successfully used fecal microbiota transplantation for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and diarrhea. Therefore, it will also be possible to use gut microbiota for treating immune-related diseases in the future. These attempts will bring about a new form of medical immunotherapy.