REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Intestinal Microbiome
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1608025
Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Interaction with Intestinal Barriers and Microbiota-targeted Treatment Options
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Gastroenterology, Wuxi No. 2 People’s Hospital, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
- 2Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China
- 3Wuxi School of Medicine, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
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Recent studies have deepened our understanding on gut microbiota alterations and the interaction with intestinal barrier impairments, which play a crucial role in the etiology and pathophysiology of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The intestinal microbiota dysbiosis in IBD including the altered microbiota composition, decreased beneficial species and increased harmful species. The disturbed gut microbiota results in the aggravation of intestinal barrier dysfunction through regulation of antimicrobial substances in mucus layer, tight junction protein in mechanical layer and inflammatory response in immune layer. The therapeutic options targeted on the microbiota including antibiotics, probiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) exhibit efficacies and limitations in the treatment of IBD. Reasonable single or combined use of these treatments can restore intestinal microecological homeostasis, which further contributes to the treatment of IBD. This review analyzes the underlying mechanisms for the interaction between microbiota alterations and gut barrier dysfunction in IBD; meanwhile, it provides new insights into the microbiota-targeted therapeutic options IBD, including the benefits, risks and limitations of antibiotic and probiotic therapies, unresolved clinical application strategies for FMT, and combination administrations of antibiotics and FMT.
Keywords: inflammatory bowel disease, Gut Microbiota, intestinal barrier, fecal microbiota transplantation, antibiotics, Probiotics
Received: 08 Apr 2025; Accepted: 05 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xie, Yu, Tang, Xun, Shen and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gaojue Wu, Department of Gastroenterology, Wuxi No. 2 People’s Hospital, Affiliated Wuxi Clinical College of Nantong University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
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