The intestinal microbiota, energy balance, and malnutrition: emphasis on the role of short-chain fatty acids.
Fluitman, K. S., De Clercq, N. C., Keijser, B. J. F., Visser, M., Nieuwdorp, M., & Ijzerman, R. G. (2017). The intestinal microbiota, energy balance, and malnutrition: emphasis on the role of short-chain fatty acids. Expert Review of Endocrinology & Metabolism, 12(3), 215-226. doi: 10.1080/17446651.2017.1318060
Over the last decades, increasing attention is being directed toward the vast amount of bacteria inhabiting the human gut: the intestinal microbiota.
These microbiota have been demonstrated to actively influence human energy balance.
Thus, a disruption of the normal microbiota can contribute to the development of malnutrition.
Accordingly, it was demonstrated that microbial composition differs between subjects with and without malnutrition.
This review of the literature summarizes the pathways through which the intestinal microbiota might contribute to malnutrition, how the microbiota differs in over- and undernutrion, and how the microbiota could be manipulated in a way to promote a healthy nutritional state.
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