García Rodríguez, NaomiGutiérrez García, Emilio2023-03-212023-03-212023Garcia, N., Gutierrez, E. Anorexia nervosa and microbiota: systematic review and critical appraisal. Eat Weight Disord 28, 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-023-01529-41124-4909http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30372Purpose: Recent studies have reported a gut microbiota imbalance or dysbiosis associated with anorexia nervosa (AN), which has prompted an appraisal of its aetiological role, and the reformulation of AN as a metabo-psychiatric disorder. Thus, the aim of this paper was to critically review the current scientific findings regarding the role of microbiota in anorexia nervosa. Methods: A systematic study of peer-reviewed literature published in four databases between 2009 and 2022 was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Both human and animal studies were included.Results: A total of 18 studies were included. In animal models, both the preclinical and clinical findings were inconsistent regarding microbiota composition, faecal metabolite concentrations, and the effects of human faecal microbiota transplants. Conclusion: The methodological limitations, lack of standardisation, and conceptual ambiguity hinder the analysis of microbiota as a key explanatory factor for ANeng© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Anorexia nervosaMicrobiotaGut-brain axisDysbiosisjournal article10.1007/s40519-023-01529-41590-1262open access