Microbiota and Ageing

The ageing of the global population has become the most relevant medical and social demographic problem worldwide. Consequently, the WHO has implementing specific programs to address it and has established the decade of 2020–2030 as the decade of Healthy Ageing. The finding that most age-related diseases share an inflammatory basis, leading to the concept of “inflammageing”, together with the possibility that the gut microbiota composition could either affect or be affected by the ageing process has gained attention among researchers, particularly in view of its variation along life and, more interestingly, regarding the differences between the microbiota of centenarians compared to that of older adults. Subsequently, a number of studies have focussed on gut microbiota as a therapeutical target for the development of therapeutic strategies directed to counteract or delay the development of age-associated conditions. The following chapter is an overview of the evolution of gut microbiota and its relationship with the progressive age-associated changes in the gastrointestinal tract, the concept of inflammageing and the interactions between microbiota and immunity, and the differences in the configuration of the microbiota between centenarians and old adults. The WHO definition of Healthy Ageing is presented, together with general interventions directed to microbiota as a potential therapeutical target.