Observational findings achieved during the past two decades suggest that the intestinal microbiota may contribute to the metabolic health of the human host and, when aberrant, to the pathogenesis of various common metabolic disorders including obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic liver disease, cardio-metabolic diseases and malnutrition. However, to gain a mechanistic understanding of how the gut microbiota affects host metabolism, research is moving from descriptive microbiota census analyses to cause-and-effect studies. Joint analyses of high-throughput human multi-omics data, including metagenomics and metabolomics data, together with measures of host physiology and mechanistic experiments in humans, animals and cells hold potential as initial steps in the identification of potential molecular mechanisms behind reported associations. In this Review, we discuss the current knowledge on how gut microbiota and derived microbial compounds may link to metabolism of the healthy host or to the pathogenesis of common metabolic diseases. We highlight examples of microbiota-targeted interventions aiming to optimize metabolic health, and we provide perspectives for future basic and translational investigations within the nascent and promising research field.

过去 20 年取得的观察结果表明，肠道微生物群可能有助于人类宿主的代谢健康，当异常时，可能有助于各种常见代谢紊乱的发病机制，包括肥胖、2 型糖尿病、非酒精性肝病、心脏病- 代谢疾病和营养不良。然而，为了从机制上了解肠道微生物群如何影响宿主代谢，研究正在从描述性微生物群普查分析转向因果研究。对高通量人类多组学数据（包括宏基因组学和代谢组学数据）的联合分析，以及对人类、动物和细胞的宿主生理学和机械实验的测量，具有作为确定所报告关联背后潜在分子机制的初步步骤的潜力。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了目前关于肠道微生物群和衍生微生物化合物如何与健康宿主的代谢或常见代谢疾病的发病机制相关的知识。我们重点介绍了旨在优化代谢健康的针对微生物群的干预措施的例子，并为新兴和有前途的研究领域内的未来基础和转化研究提供了前景。