Abstract
Despite continued advances in prevention and new treatment modalities, metabolic diseases, with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at the forefront, remain the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. Advances in knowledge and the discovery of new links in the aetiology of metabolic diseases have also opened up a space for research into the gut microbiome and its involvement in disease pathogenesis.
The gut microbiome consists of trillion s of metabolically active organisms that produce many metabolites such as trimethylamine N-oxide, secondary bile acids, lipopolysaccharides, short-chain fatty acids etc., that play a role in the pathway of atherogenesis. Also bacterial DNA has been found directly in the atherosclerotic plaque itself.