Abstract
Increase and changes in intestinal microflora might enhance mucosal inflammation. Mucosal inflammation, once it begins, may impair intestinal motility by amplifying inflammatory reactions within the muscular layers. Because intestinal motility is considered to be an important factor for the maintenance of normal intestinal flora, there could be a "vicious cycle" created between changes in intestinal flora and motility in the intestine. This may result in the alteration of intestinal functions, which might lead to systemic diseases in advanced cases. We hypothesize that dysfunction of intestinal motility observed in the enterocolitis of Hirschsprung's disease may be attributable to substances originating from macrophages resident at the level of the myenteric plexus. We describe here the knowledge about the relationship between intestinal microflora and motility dysfunction in gut inflammatory diseases.
