Can Smoking Protect the Gut - and Harm It at the Same Time?
Smoking is a major health risk. Yet in inflammatory bowel disease, it presents a long-standing clinical paradox: it can aggravate Crohn’s disease while sometimes reducing inflammation in ulcerative colitis.
At Targeting Microbiota 2026, Prof. Hiroshi Ohno, from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, Japan, will explore how the microbiota may help explain this contradiction.
His research indicates that smoking modifies the mucosal microbiota, increases the presence of oral bacteria in the colon, and alters microbial metabolites. One bacterium, Streptococcus mitis, produced strikingly opposite effects: it reduced inflammation in an experimental model of ulcerative colitis but worsened disease in a Crohn’s model.
This is not a discussion about recommending smoking.
It is about understanding how the same environmental exposure can reshape the gut ecosystem and trigger completely different immune responses depending on the disease context.
Smoking, Microbiota and Immunity: Solving a 40-Year Clinical Paradox
A provocative lecture that could open new perspectives on IBD mechanisms, patient stratification and microbiota-targeted interventions.
For more information: LinkedIn
