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Review
. 2023 Aug 23:13:1218565.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1218565. eCollection 2023.

The lung-gut crosstalk in respiratory and inflammatory bowel disease

Baoxiang Du  1 , Yan Fu  1 , Yuxiu Han  1 , Qihui Sun  1 , Jinke Xu  2 , Yong Yang  3   4 , Rong Rong  1   5   6
Affiliations
Review

The lung-gut crosstalk in respiratory and inflammatory bowel disease

Baoxiang Du et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

Both lung and gut belong to the common mucosal immune system (CMIS), with huge surface areas exposed to the external environment. They are the main defense organs against the invasion of pathogens and play a key role in innate and adaptive immunity. Recently, more and more evidence showed that stimulation of one organ can affect the other, as exemplified by intestinal complications during respiratory disease and vice versa, which is called lung-gut crosstalk. Intestinal microbiota plays an important role in respiratory and intestinal diseases. It is known that intestinal microbial imbalance is related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), this imbalance could impact the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier and leads to the persistence of inflammation, however, gut microbial disturbances have also been observed in respiratory diseases such as asthma, allergy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and respiratory infection. It is not fully clarified how these disorders happened. In this review, we summarized the latest examples and possible mechanisms of lung-gut crosstalk in respiratory disease and IBD and discussed the strategy of shaping intestinal flora to treat respiratory diseases.

Keywords: common mucosal immune system; inflammatory bowel disease; lung-gut crosstalk; microbiota; respiratory disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bidirectional lung-gut crosstalk. Metabolites such as short chain fatty acids produced by intestinal bacteria move through the bloodstream, stimulating the immune response in the lungs. Different cytokines and immune cells induced by various antigens like influenza virus, and tobacco particles, also regulate the immune response of these two organs through the lymphatic vessels and blood vessels. ILD, Inflammatory lung disease; IBD, Inflammatory bowel disease; SCFAs, Short chain fatty acids; CMIS, Common mucosal immune system. This figure was made by Figdraw software.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The lung-gut axis during viral respiratory infections. IAV or RAV infection can activate pulmonary immunity and cause serious lung injury. At the same time, reduced food intake and excessive secretion of cytokines such as type I and II IFNs disturbed intestinal homeostasis, and these alterations contribute to the impairment of intestinal barrier function and intestinal inflammation. This figure made by Figdraw software.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This research was financially supported by the Key R&D Program of Shandong Province (2020CXGC010505), the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82274397), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2021LZY012), the Jinan City Funding for University Innovation Teams (No. 2021GXRC028) and High Level Traditional Chinese Medicine Key Disciplines of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.