Review article

The role of the intestinal microbiota in the development of atopic disorders The role of the gut microbiota in health and disease has received considerable scientific interest recently. Especi-ally, the development of new culture-independent tech-niques has rekindled the interest in intestinal microbial ecology. The gut microbiota has been linked to the risk of gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) (1–4), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (5, 6) and necrotizing enterocolitis (7–9). However the role of the gut microbiota in health and disease may go even beyond the gut as it has also been linked to atopic diseases. This review aims to give a comprehensive overview of observational studies of the association between the gut microbiota composition and atopi