[Intestinal microbiota: from antibiotic-associated diarrhea to inflammatory bowel diseases]

Abstract

The intestinal microbiota is known to be composed by several hundred different bacterial species and is stable over time. Antibiotics intake induces a disturbance in the composition of intestinal microbiota which impairs its protective role against infection by pathogens. The presence of a large biomass of bacteria in the digestive tract exerts physiological effects with beneficial consequences for the host. Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases, exhibit an imbalance in the composition of intestinal microbiota called dysbiosis.