The capacity of our gut microbial communities to maintain a stable and balanced state, termed 'resilience', in spite of perturbations is vital to our achieving and maintaining optimal health. A loss of microbial resilience is observed in a number of diseases including obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. There are large gaps in our understanding of why an individual's co-evolved microflora consortium fail to develop resilience thereby establishing a trajectory towards poor metabolic health. This review examines the connections between the developing gut microbiota and intestinal barrier function in the neonate, infant and during the first years of life. We propose that the effects of early life events on the gut microflora and permeability, whilst it is in a dynamic and vulnerable state, are fundamental in shaping the microbial consortia's resilience and that it is the maintenance of resilience that is pivotal for metabolic health throughout life. We review the literature supporting this concept suggesting new potential research directions aimed at developing a greater understanding of the longitudinal effects of the gut microflora on metabolic health and potential interventions to recalibrate the 'at risk' infant gut microflora in the direction of enhanced metabolic health.
Keywords: Development; gut permeability; microbial diversity; microbial resilience; obesity.