Special feature: The microbiota in the chronic inflammation and autoimmunity

We share our bodies with microbiota whose cell count vastly outnumbers our own. During last decades, our understanding of microbiota has deepened according to the development of DNA-based sequencing methods. Experimental & Molecular Medicine's 2017 special issue, “The Microbiota in the Chronic Inflammation and Autoimmunity”, discusses how intestinal epithelial cells modulate interactions between microbial habitants and gut, and how dysbiosis is linked to chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases with 3 invited review articles. Each review provides a current overview of the profound discoveries about the microbiota and perspectives on future studies.