Abstract
Research on allergy has recently uncovered an apparent co-occurrence of allergies in skin and the lungs, a phenomenon that has been coined “atopic march”. A positive correlation has been found between gut microbiota at birth and the development of asthma and skin eczema later in life. Chinese medicine has long described a functional relationship between the large intestine and the lungs, and between the lungs and skin. In this short article, we examined the evidence in support of these inter-organ physiological/pathological relationships. In addition to the clinical observation of the relationship between the composition of gut microbiota at birth and the development of asthma later in childhood, gut microorganisms have also been shown to exert a protective effect on bacteria-induced pneumonia in experimental animals. Genetic predisposition was also found to play an important role in the co-existence of certain diseases of lung and skin. Despite the fact that the mechanism(s) underlying the connection of immune systems between two organs (such as the large intestine and the lungs) is still not clearly understood, it is the first time to correlate the relationship among gut, lung and skin based on recent clinical studies in relation to the Zang-Fu Theory in Chinese medicine. Future investigation of the gut-lung and lung-skin axes in terms of physiological/pathological relationships may help to provide a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of allergies, possibly establishing relevance to the Zang-Fu Theory in Chinese medicine.
Highlights
The development of a comprehensive theory of how the functions of organs are inter-connected and influence each other has become an area of increasing research interest in modern medicine; whereas a large body of evidence from observations and numerous clinical applications were accumulated over the thousands of years where Chinese medicine was practiced
Despite the fact that the mechanism(s) underlying the connection of immune systems between two organs is still not clearly understood, it is the first time to correlate the relationship among gut, lung and skin based on recent clinical studies in relation to the Zang-Fu Theory in Chinese medicine
There is a growing body of evidence supporting the presence of a gut-lung axis and a lung-skin axis, wherein one organ of the axis is functionally related to the other (Table 1)
Summary
The development of a comprehensive theory of how the functions of organs are inter-connected and influence each other has become an area of increasing research interest in modern medicine; whereas a large body of evidence from observations and numerous clinical applications were accumulated over the thousands of years where Chinese medicine was practiced. Recent research has uncovered an apparent co-occurrence of skin and lung allergies, in that atopic dermatitis in infancy tends to be followed by allergic rhinitis and asthma later in childhood [1]. This phenomenon was coined “atopic march” [1], which is currently an area of considerable research interest. A positive correlation between gut microbiota at birth (which is associated with the development of asthma) and skin eczema later in life has been found [2] [3] All these suggest possible functional interactions among gut, lungs and skin. The upper part of the respiratory tract is colonized by pathogen and bacteria, whereas the lower part of the lungs is less populated by microorganisms, possibly due to the relatively unfavorable environment [6]
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