Childhood asthma represents a multifactorial inflammatory disorder shaped by genetic predisposition, environmental exposures, and immune dysregulation. Growing evidence underscores the gut microbiota as a critical mediator linking early-life microbial colonization with long-term respiratory immune outcomes.
Gut commensals influence key immunological processes—including Th1/Th2/Th17/Treg balance, dendritic cell maturation, and epithelial barrier integrity—thereby shaping host susceptibility to asthma. Moreover, microbial metabolites such as SCFAs, LPS, tryptophan derivatives, and secondary bile acids serve as potent immunoregulatory agents, capable of either promoting or attenuating airway inflammation.
The gut–lung axis provides a conceptual and mechanistic framework through which intestinal microbial alterations influence pulmonary immunity. This review outlines how microbial dysbiosis disrupts immune homeostasis by affecting T cell subset differentiation, dendritic and epithelial cell function, mucosal immunity, and inflammatory signaling, offering novel insights into asthma pathogenesis and highlighting promising targets for microbiota-based prevention and therapeutic strategies.
This review synthesizes evidence implicating intestinal microbiota in the development of pediatric asthma, framing gut microbial communities as modulators of immune trajectories established in early life that influence later respiratory inflammation.
The gut–lung axis is presented as the organizing model linking intestinal microbial composition to pulmonary immune responses, providing routes for microbially derived signals to alter airway inflammation risk.
Authors identify microbiota-targeted approaches as potential avenues for prevention or therapy, based on mechanistic links between dysbiosis and asthma susceptibility.
Specific study designs, populations, quantitative effects, and clinical outcomes are not reported in the source.
The review emphasizes mechanistic connections without detailing intervention trial results.