Human gut microbiota is of great importance, as indicated by accumulated evidences of its close association with human health. As an internalized ‘microbial organ’, the gut microbiota provides many functions that are not encoded in the host genome but shown to be essential to human health, such as short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production and vitamin synthesis. Such health-relevant functions may be considered ecosystem services provided by the gut microbiota for the host. A number of factors influence the composition and metabolic activity of the colonic microbiota, and probiotics are believed to be an important regulator of intestinal bacterial diversity and metabolism in addition to genetic factors and diet. Probiotics are living micro-organisms that confer beneficial effects to the host, and it is believed that they hold great potential for regulating intestinal bacterial metabolism. Recent evidence has shown that probiotics play major roles in maintaining equilibrium and stability of enteric microbiota, which in turn aids in gastrointestinal functions, including control of transit time, bowel habits, nutrient bioavailability, and modulation of gastrointestinal immune activity. Therefore, aiming at the characteristics of population structure and function of intestinal flora research, to develop of probiotic strains intestinal flora to adapt to our country crowd is of great importance. It is urgent to establish microbial models for early diagnosis of disease and at the same time to vigorously develop excellent probiotic bacterial species resources as an effective scientific guidance and replacement therapy in order to solve the antibiotic resistance problem, by combining intestinal flora and human disease diagnosis and treatment.

probiotic  /  intestinal microbiota  /  human disease