REVIEW article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1566267
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Interaction Between Food Ingredients and Gut Microbiome on Health and DiseaseView all 22 articles
Exploring the Influence of Gut Microbiota Metabolites on Vitiligo Through the Gut-Skin Axis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Graduate School of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
- 2Tianjin Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated Hospital, Tianjin, China
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Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease with a complex pathogenesis closely linked to immune imbalance and oxidative stress. Currently, comprehensive curative treatments and effective relapse prevention strategies are lacking. Recently, the "gut-skin axis" hypothesis has offered new insights into the pathological mechanisms of vitiligo. Studies indicate that gut microbiota and their metabolic products significantly affect disease progression by regulating immune homeostasis and inflammatory responses in the host. This review systematically examines the effects of short-chain fatty acids, secondary bile acids, and tryptophan metabolites on the human immune system and the inflammatory milieu, and their direct impact on melanocytes. Furthermore, considering the reduced diversity of gut microbiota in individuals with vitiligo, this article also evaluates methods including probiotic intervention, the Mediterranean diet, and fecal microbiota transplantation , which may emerge as potential therapeutic strategies for vitiligo by restoring microbiota balance. Future multidimensional therapeutic strategies that target gut microbiota metabolites show promise for pioneering innovative approaches in vitiligo management.
Keywords: Vitiligo, Gut Microbiota, short-chain fatty acids, Secondary bile acids, Tryptophan
Received: 24 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yuan, Liu, Zeng, Jinxiang, Guo and Zhang. 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: Junling Zhang, Tianjin Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated Hospital, Tianjin, 300120, China
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