This review highlights the emerging pathophysiological role of the intestinal barrier and gut microbiome in chronic heart failure, suggesting a target for future research.
It remains unclear whether increased adherent bacteria in patients with chronic heart failure are a primary or secondary event and whether they contribute to systemic inflammation. Both lack of mucosal integrity with consecutive local and systemic inflammation and dysfunction of transport proteins may worsen the clinical symptoms of chronic heart failure. Therefore, future studies need to address the pathophysiology of the intestinal barrier whose reactivity seems to be crucial for heart function.
Sandek et al. (Mon,) studied this question.