Published online Sep 14, 2013. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i34.5607
Revised: July 13, 2013
Accepted: August 5, 2013
Published online: September 14, 2013
Advances in understanding the interaction between the human immune system and the microbiome have led to an improved understanding of the function of the vermiform appendix as a safe-house for beneficial bacteria in the colon. These advances have been made despite long standing clinical observations that the appendectomy is a safe and effective procedure. However, more recent clinical data show that an appendectomy puts patients at increased risk for recurrent Clostridium difficile (C. difficile)-associated colitis, and probably other diseases associated with an altered microbiome. At the same time, appendectomy does not apparently put patients at risk for an initial onset of C. difficile-associated colitis. These clinical observations point toward the idea that the vermiform appendix might not effectively protect the microbiome in the face of broad spectrum antibiotics, the use of which precedes the initial onset of C. difficile-associated colitis. Further, these observations point to the idea that historically important threats to the microbiome such as infectious gastrointestinal pathogens have been supplanted by other threats, particularly the use of broad spectrum antibiotics.
Core tip: Although the function of the appendix has remained an enigma for centuries, recently emerging advances in the fields of immunology and gut microbiology have merged with observations made in the clinic to form a coherent picture. Although the appendix is apparently a safe-house for beneficial bacteria, it seems likely that this safe-house does not satisfactorily protect the microbiome from broad spectrum antibiotics. In this view, selection pressures which threatened the microbiome and likely drove the evolution of the appendix have been supplanted in post-industrial society by new threats to the microbiome that the human body is not adapted for.