The microbiota: an underestimated actor in radiation-induced lesions?

The co-evolution of humans and microbes that colonise the GI tract is shaped by environmental factors and evolved to promote health.1 Microbial derangements (termed dysbiosis) have been observed for a variety of intestinal and extraintestinal diseases.1 Metabolic, autoimmune, liver and intestinal disorders have been linked to microbial dysbiosis which promotes susceptibility to inflammatory disease in some cases as largely assessed in animal models.2 Intestinal dysbiosis has also been implicated in colorectal cancer3 and microbes may determine treatment response for non-intestinal malignancies.4

For more than 10 years, intestinal microbial alterations have been associated with localised radiation in humans and mouse models.5–8 Importantly, mice that lack colonisation of microbes (ie, raised germ free) were resistant to lethal radiation enteritis, indicating that the microbiota controls intestinal disease processes consequent to radiation-induced damage.9 In this context, however,...

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