Abstract
The human superorganism represents a coalition of man and microbes, with the greatest diversity and burden of these species concentrated in the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Recent studies in this emerging field have demonstrated relationships between the composition of these communities and diverse aspects of host physiology, including immunological and metabolic function. These studies have implicated GI microbiome dysbiosis as a primary driver of such diseases both within and at sites remote from the GI tract. Epidemiological studies have previously revealed strong correlations between exposures that conceivably impact host microbiota and airway disease. More recent investigations have focused on the impact of such exposures on the GI microbiome and linked these findings to pulmonary outcomes, resulting in a growing body of literature supporting evidence for a gastrointestinal-airway axis. This chapter reviews the recent literature to support this hypothesis and discusses the possibilities for targeting the GI microbiome to improve pulmonary outcomes.
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