MINI REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Intestinal Microbiome
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1626585
This article is part of the Research TopicBidirectional Gut-Brain Interactions in Modulating Central Nervous System DiseasesView all 6 articles
Interaction between gut microbiota and anesthesia: mechanism exploration and translation challenges focusing on the gut-brain-liver axis
Provisionally accepted
- 1First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
- 2Xiamen Anesthesia Quality Control Center, Xiamen, China
- 3School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Xiamen, China
- 4Department of Anesthesiology, Zhangzhou Pinghe County Hospital, Zhangzhou, China
- 5School of Clinical Medicine, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
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As a core participant in human metabolism, immunity, and neural regulation, the gut microbiota has been demonstrated to be closely related to anesthesia drug metabolism and perioperative complications in recent years. Via the bidirectional interaction between the gut-brain axis and gut-liver axis, the gut microbiota and its metabolites can regulate central nervous system inflammation, liver drug-metabolizing enzyme activity, and the clearance efficiency of anesthetic drugs. Moreover, anesthetic drugs can significantly reshape the gut microbiota structure by altering intestinal barrier function, inhibiting beneficial bacterial proliferation, or inducing bile acid metabolism disorders, thereby resulting in a vicious cycle of neuroinflammation and metabolic abnormalities. Microbiota-targeted intervention strategies have demonstrated potential in alleviating anesthesia-related complications in response to this interactive network; however, their clinical translation is still limited by incomplete understanding of the underlying mechanisms, individual heterogeneity, and safety challenges. In the future, it will be necessary to integrate multiomics technologies for analyzing the tripartite interaction network of microorganisms, hosts, and drugs, as well as for promoting standardized clinical research, in order to develop individualized anesthesia management plans based on gut microbiota regulation; these initiatives can result in improvements in perioperative safety and patient prognosis.
Keywords: Gut Microbiota, Anesthesia, Gut-brain-liver axis, drug metabolism, clinical translation
Received: 23 May 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Li, Yu, Li, Wei, Lin and Ye. 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:
Liang Lin, First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Yifeng Ye, First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.