Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, 00014 Helsinki, Finland; Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
Jarno Honkanen
Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
Mikael Knip
Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, 00014 Helsinki, Finland; Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland; Tampere Center for Child Health Research, Tampere University Hospital, 33520 Tampere, Finland; Folkhälsan Research Center, 00290 Helsinki, Finland; Corresponding author at: Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
The steep increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D), in the Western world after World War II, cannot be explained solely by genetic factors but implies that this rise must be due to crucial interactions between predisposing genes and environmental changes. Three parallel phenomena in early childhood – the dynamic development of the immune system, maturation of the gut microbiome, and the appearance of the first T1D-associated autoantibodies – raise the question whether these phenomena might reflect causative relationships. Plenty of novel data on the role of the microbiome in the development of T1D has been published over recent years and this review summarizes recent findings regarding the associations between islet autoimmunity, T1D, and the intestinal microbiota. Keywords: Type 1 diabetes, Microbiota, Mycobiota, Virome, Dysbiosis
