Connecting variation in the gut microbiome with susceptibility to vascular disease

Abstract

The human distal gut harbors complex, diverse and dynamic microbial communities that are shaped by diet and host factors. These communities provide the host with a vast range of functions such as digestion of complex dietary components, production of vitamins, and maturation of the immune system. Dietary components such as complex plant polysaccharides (e.g., fiber) which are not absorbed in the proximal intestine reach the distal gut where they boost the growth of many intestinal bacteria, which in turn release metabolites that modulate host epigenetic programing and health. Because of the large variation in gut microbiota composition among individuals these microbial communities represent an important and differential factor that can modulate the nutritional value of food., with increased representation of butyrate‐producing microbes proposed as one of the potential mediators. I will illustrate approaches focusing on our recent studies aimed at defining the interrelationships between diet, gut microbiome variation, host epigenetic regulation and atherosclerosis.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.