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Endocrine
Published in: Endocrine 3/2015

01-08-2015 | Viewpoint

Does microbiota composition affect thyroid homeostasis?

Authors: Camilla Virili, Marco Centanni

Published in: Endocrine | Issue 3/2015

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Abstract

The intestinal microbiota is essential for the host to ensure digestive and immunologic homeostasis. When microbiota homeostasis is impaired and dysbiosis occurs, the malfunction of epithelial barrier leads to intestinal and systemic disorders, chiefly immunologic and metabolic. The role of the intestinal tract is crucial in the metabolism of nutrients, drugs, and hormones, including exogenous and endogenous iodothyronines as well as micronutrients involved in thyroid homeostasis. However, the link between thyroid homeostasis and microbiota composition is not yet completely ascertained. A pathogenetic link with dysbiosis has been described in different autoimmune disorders but not yet fully elucidated in autoimmune thyroid disease which represents the most frequent of them. Anyway, it has been suggested that intestinal dysbiosis may trigger autoimmune thyroiditis. Furthermore, hypo- and hyper-thyroidism, often of autoimmune origin, were respectively associated to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and to changes in microbiota composition. Whether some steps of this thyroid network may be affected by intestinal microbiota composition is briefly discussed below.
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Metadata
Title
Does microbiota composition affect thyroid homeostasis?
Authors
Camilla Virili
Marco Centanni
Publication date
01-08-2015
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Endocrine / Issue 3/2015
Print ISSN: 1355-008X
Electronic ISSN: 1559-0100
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0509-2

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