Sleep Apnea Morbidity: A Consequence of Microbial-Immune Cross-Talk?

Sleep Apnea Morbidity: A Consequence of Microbial-Immune Cross-Talk? Chest. 2018 Mar 13;: Authors: Farré N, Farré R, Gozal D Abstract Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) has emerged as a highly prevalent public health problem that imposes important mid-term and long-term consequences, namely cardiovascular, metabolic, cognitive and cancer-related alterations. OSA is characterized by increased upper airway resistance, alveolar hypoventilation, and recurrent upper airway obstruction during sleep. Recurrent collapse of the upper airway develops with sleep onset, and is associated with both intermittent hypoxemia and sleep fragmentation. The microbiome is a vast and complex polymicrobial ecosystem that coexists with the human organism, and has been identified as playing significant roles in the development of host immunological phenotypes. In humans and animal models, changes in gut microbial communities occur with lifestyle behaviors, such as smoking, long distance travel, dietary preferences, physical exercise, and circadian rhythm disturbances. In parallel, diseases previously attributed in part to lifestyle such as obesity, coronary heart disease, depression, and asthma (also associated with OSA) are now claimed as microbiota-related. Therefore, we posit that altered patterns of sleep and oxygenation, as seen in OSA, will promote specific alterations in gut microbiota which in turn will elicit the immunological alterations that lead to O...
Source: Chest - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Chest Source Type: research