REVIEW article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems
The role of gut microbiota (GM) in the formation of IBD, a typical chronic intestinal inflammatory disease
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangyou People's Hospital, Sichuan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The existing etiological studies of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) mainly focus on genetics, environment, immunity and gut microbiota (GM). Interestingly, this review found that the first three causes are not separate, but closely related to GM. First, the genetic characteristics of GM are closely related to the pathogenesis of IBD, and multiple human genomic loci (such as LCT and ABO) have been identified to affect GM changes and increase the risk of IBD. Secondly, the composition of GM is directly related to the environment at birth. With the growth of human beings, environmental factors such as diet, antibiotics, and even psychosocial stress can lead to significant changes in the composition and function of the GM, thus affecting the intestinal inflammatory state of the host. In addition, GM disruption stimulates the body to accumulate a large number of inflammatory cells and activates the immune system to repair tissue while resisting infection, resulting in colitis. Therefore, this review takes genetic factors, environmental factors, and immune regulation as entry points to explore the important role of GM in the formation of colitis and the possible benefits of regulating GM composition, providing new strategies for the prevention and treatment.
Keywords: Gut Microbiota, Colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, genetic factors, environmental factors, Immune Regulation
Received: 09 Oct 2025; Accepted: 26 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen. 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: Jinglin Chen
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.