Determining Gut Microbial Dysbiosis - A review of applied indexes for assessment of intestinal microbiota imbalances

Shaodong Wei, Martin Iain Bahl, Simon Mark Dahl Baunwall, Christian Lodberg Hvas, Tine Rask Licht*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewpeer-review

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Abstract

Assessing "dysbiosis" in intestinal microbial communities is increasingly considered a routine analysis in microbiota studies, and has added relevant information to the prediction and characterization of diseases and other adverse conditions. However, dysbiosis is not a well-defined condition. A variety of different dysbiosis indexes have been suggested and applied, but their underlying methodology, as well as the cohorts and conditions for which they have been developed, differ considerably. To date, no comprehensive overview and comparison of all the different methodologies and applications of such indexes is available. Here, we list all types of dysbiosis indexes identified in the literature, introduce their methodology, group them into categories, and discuss their potential descriptive and clinical applications as well as their limitations. Our focus is thus not on the implications of dysbiosis for disease, but on the methodological approaches available to determine and quantify this condition.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere00395-21
JournalApplied and Environmental Microbiology
Volume87
Issue number11
Number of pages13
ISSN0099-2240
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • Dysbiosis
  • Dysbiosis index
  • Gut
  • Intestine
  • Microbiota

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