Abstract
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a frequent type of inflammatory bowel disease, characterized by periods of remission and exacerbation. Gut dysbiosis may influence pathophysiology and clinical response in UC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether gut microbiota is related to the active and remission phases of pancolitis in patients with UC as well as in healthy participants. Fecal samples were obtained from 18 patients with UC and clinical‐endoscopic evidenced pancolitis (active phase n = 9 and remission phase n = 9), as well as 15 healthy participants. After fecal DNA extraction, the 16S rRNA gene was amplified and sequenced (Illumina MiSeq), operational taxonomic units were analyzed with the QIIME software. Gut microbiota composition revealed a higher abundance of the phyla Proteobacteria and Fusobacteria in active pancolitis, as compared with remission and healthy participants. Likewise, a marked abundance of the genus Bilophila and Fusobacteria were present in active pancolitis, whereas a higher abundance of Faecalibacterium characterized both remission and healthy participants. LEfSe analysis showed that the genus Roseburia and Faecalibacterium were enriched in remission pancolitis, and genera Bilophila and Fusobacterium were enriched in active pancolitis. The relative abundance of Fecalibacterium and Roseburia showed a higher correlation with fecal calprotectin, while Bilophila and Fusobacterium showed AUCs (area under the curve) of 0.917 and 0.988 for active vs. remission pancolitis. The results of our study highlight the relation of gut dysbiosis with clinically relevant phases of pancolitis in patients with UC. Particularly, Fecalibacterium, Roseburia, Bilophila, and Fusobacterium were identified as genera highly related to the different clinical phases of pancolitis.
Highlights
The intestinal tract houses a large and diverse community of microorganisms collectively referred to as the gut microbiota
Our main finding was the significant differences of fecal microbiota composition from patients with active vs. remission pancolitis, with potential clinical application
Gut dysbiosis observed in patients with active vs. remission pancolitis in the present study is comparable with other reports (Alam et al, 2020; Danilova et al, 2019; Franzosa et al, 2019; Halfvarson et al, 2017; Imhann et al, 2018; Kumari et al, 2013; Sha et al, 2013)
Summary
The intestinal tract houses a large and diverse community of microorganisms collectively referred to as the gut microbiota. A causal effect has not been evidenced; nowadays, it is widely accepted that altered interactions between gut dysbiosis and the intestinal immune system promote UC (Imhann et al, 2018), while the precise nature of the intestinal microbiota dysfunction in UC remains to be elucidated In this sense, the gut microbiota has been considered as a “fingerprint” reflecting the natural history of UC, since it associates with the clinical severity, remission, and flare-up responses (Marchesi et al, 2016). Rapid development and application of cultureindependent, high throughput DNA-based sequencing technologies have elicited the recognition of such dysbiotic signatures, which may play a role during the early identification of clinical-therapeutic phases of UC, and useful in severe clinical manifestations like pancolitis (Peterson et al, 2008; Rintala et al, 2017) Despite this notion, the relation of gut dysbiosis with pancolitis has been poorly characterized. Given the increasing UC prevalence worldwide, including Latin American countries (Bosques-Padilla et al, 2011; Farrukh & Mayberry, 2014), along with the strong interest to understand the relation of dysbiotic gut microbiota with most serious phases of UC like pancolitis, the present study aimed to characterize gut microbiota from patients with UC and different clinical phases of pancolitis
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