Basic—Alimentary TractBiostructure of Fecal Microbiota in Healthy Subjects and Patients With Chronic Idiopathic Diarrhea
Section snippets
Patients
Patients with chronic idiopathic diarrhea were recruited from the gastroenterology outpatient clinic of the Charité Hospital. All patients had a complete gastroenterological diagnostic investigation, including colonoscopy, gastroscopy, ultrasonography, and laboratory tests. The diagnosis of idiopathic (functional) diarrhea was made as described.5, 6 However, for this study, only patients with diarrhea of at least 12-month duration with a weekly average of ≥4 stools/day were included. Their ages
Compliance
Nine healthy controls and 2 patients with idiopathic diarrhea who were enrolled in the study failed to complete the study protocol and hence were excluded from the study and replaced by compliant subjects. The inability to collect stools with very loose consistency apparently accounted for the noncompliance in patients with diarrhea, whereas healthy subjects attributed their noncompliance to discomfort with handling of feces and/or lack of time. The overall readiness to participate in the study
Discussion
The analysis of the fecal microbiota in health and disease was generally regarded as highly unreliable, difficult to perform, and useless for the clinic.1, 2 Our study and another previous publication10 show that this is definitely not the case. Quantitative analysis of bacterial composition and fluorescence intensity in the spatial relation to the fecal core, surface, and mucus allow us to differentiate diseased and normal feces and to longitudinally follow-up the progression of the symptoms
References (10)
Chronic diarrhea: identifying a new syndrome
Am J Gastroenterol
(2000)- et al.
Fusobacterium prausnitzii and related species represent a dominant group within the human fecal flora
Syst Appl Microbiol
(2001) - et al.
Dysbiosis in inflammatory bowel disease
Gut
(2004) - et al.
Unravelling the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease
Nature
(2007) - et al.
Spatial organization and composition of the mucosal flora in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
JCM
(2005)
Cited by (146)
Fecal-adherent mucus is a non-invasive source of primary human MUC2 for structural and functional characterization in health and disease
2024, Journal of Biological ChemistryThe gut mucus network: A dynamic liaison between microbes and the immune system
2023, Seminars in ImmunologyTherapeutic potential of Saccharomyces boulardii in liver diseases: from passive bystander to protective performer?
2022, Pharmacological Research
The authors report that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.