Microbial metabolites at the front line: Orchestrating gastrointestinal and systemic barrier immunity across the lifespan.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing preclinical and clinical literature without systematic review methodology.
PubMed 42301810 · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117556
What was done
The authors synthesized literature from experimental animal models and human studies on how microbiota-derived metabolites—including short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan catabolites, and bile acid derivatives—regulate mucosal epithelial integrity, innate immune tone, adaptive immunity, and systemic interactions along the gut-lung and gut-skin axes across different life stages.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, sample sizes, effect sizes, or statistical metrics. It provides a qualitative overview describing how microbial metabolites modulate mucosal and systemic barrier immunity and noting that metabolite dysregulation is linked to inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, and atopic dermatitis.
Why it matters
This review synthesizes cross-organ mechanisms connecting gut microbiota metabolites to barrier health and systemic immunity across the lifespan. It highlights early-life developmental windows as critical periods for metabolic and immune programming.
Limits
This is a narrative review with no original data, systematic search protocol, or meta-analytic synthesis. Specific causal thresholds, metabolite concentrations, effect sizes, and detailed differences between animal models and human translation are not reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports The innate immune system is predominantly concentrated at mucosal barrier surfaces, including the gut mucosa, lung epithelium, and nasal passages.