{"version":"v1","chain":{"id":"oxygen-leak-cascade","title":"Oxygen-leak → facultative-anaerobe expansion → mucosal inflammation","question":"What conceptual chain links colonocyte energy failure to recurrent dysbiosis?","summary":"Loss of colonocyte β-oxidation raises mucosal oxygen tension, lifting the obligate-anaerobe advantage and allowing facultative-anaerobe expansion that further amplifies inflammation.","steps":[{"nodeId":"molecule:butyrate","rationale":"Microbial butyrate normally fuels colonocyte β-oxidation.","evidence":"established","claimIds":["colonocyte-beta-oxidation-of-butyrate"]},{"nodeId":"process:beta-oxidation","rationale":"Colonocyte β-oxidation consumes O₂ and maintains epithelial hypoxia.","evidence":"established"},{"nodeId":"concept:colonocyte-bioenergetics","rationale":"When β-oxidation falls (low SCFA, mitochondrial damage, H₂S burden), epithelial O₂ consumption drops.","evidence":"strong-mechanistic-inference","claimIds":["colonocyte-energy-failure-drives-oxygen-leak"]},{"nodeId":"concept:oxygen-gradient-failure","rationale":"Mucosal O₂ tension rises, eroding the obligate-anaerobe advantage.","evidence":"established","claimIds":["epithelial-hypoxia-suppresses-facultative-anaerobes"]},{"nodeId":"concept:nitrate-respiration","rationale":"Inflammation-derived nitrate provides Enterobacteriaceae a respiratory substrate that obligate anaerobes cannot use.","evidence":"established","claimIds":["nitrate-respiration-feeds-pathobionts"]},{"nodeId":"concept:dysbiosis-ecology","rationale":"Facultative anaerobes expand; SCFA producers contract — completing a self-reinforcing loop.","evidence":"mechanistic-inference"},{"nodeId":"concept:gut-barrier-dysfunction","rationale":"Reduced butyrate and inflammatory signaling weaken tight junctions; LPS translocation rises.","evidence":"mechanistic-inference","claimIds":["lps-translocation-via-tlr4-drives-low-grade-endotoxemia"]}],"competingChains":["motility-first-cascade"],"relatedConcepts":["host-capacity-model","colonocyte-bioenergetics","oxygen-gradient-failure","nitrate-respiration"],"relatedArticles":["why-some-people-never-recover-from-gut-disorders-the-overloo"],"evidenceFloor":"mechanistic-inference","lastReviewed":"2026-05-11"}}