[Intestinal microbiota]

The human body normally lives in symbiosis with a considerable microscopic environment present on all interfaces with the external environment; it hosts ten times more microbes (microbiota) that it has somatic or germ cells, representing a gene diversity (microbiome) 100-150 times higher than the human genome. These germs are located mainly in the gut, where they represent a mass of about one kilogram. The primary colonization of the gastrointestinal tract depends on the delivery route, the bacterial flora rewarding then depending on the environment, food hygiene, medical treatments. The intestinal microbiota plays an important role in the maturation of the immune system and in different physiological functions: digestion of polysaccharides, glycosaminoglycans and glycoproteins, vitamins biosynthesis, bile salt metabolism of some amino acids and xenobiotics. Quantitative and qualitative changes in the microbiota are observed in a wide range of diseases: obesity, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases, allergies... pharmacobiotics aim to modify the intestinal microbiota in a therapeutic goal and this by various means: prebiotics, probiotics, antibiotics or fecal transplants. Intestinal flora also plays a direct role in the metabolism of certain drugs and the microbiota should be considered as a predictive parameter of response to some chemotherapies.