Gut Microbiota Associated with Clinical Relapse in Patients with Quiescent Ulcerative Colitis

Abstract

The microbiota associated with relapse in patients with quiescent ulcerative colitis (qUC) remains unclear. Our objective was to analyze the fecal microbiota of Japanese patients with qUC and identify the relapse-associated microbiota. In this study, 59 patients with qUC and 59 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled (UMIN 000019486), and their fecal microbiota was compared using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We followed their clinical course up to 3.5 years and analyzed the relapse-associated microbiota. Potential functional changes in the fecal microbiota were evaluated using PICRUSt software and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database. There were significant differences in fecal microbiota diversity between HC and qUC subjects, with 13 taxa characterizing each subject. Despite no significant difference in variation of microbiota in a single sample (α diversity) between patients in sustained remission and relapsed patients, the variation in microbial communities between samples (β diversity) was significantly different. Prevotella was more abundant in the sustained remission patients, whereas Faecalibacterium and Bifidobacterium were more abundant in the relapsed patients. We clustered the entire cohort into four clusters, and Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed the subsequent clinical course of each cluster was different. We identified 48 metabolic pathways associated with each cluster using linear discriminant analysis effect size. We confirmed the difference in microbiota between patients with qUC and HCs and identified three genera associated with relapse. We found that the clusters based on these genera had different subsequent clinical courses and activated different metabolic pathways.

Enrichment of Lactic Acid-Producing Bacteria in the Fecal Microbiota of Patients with Ulcerative Colitis in North India

“…The comparative fecal microbiome analysis of North Indian patients with UC and heathy controls who had similar dietary and lifestyle habits (predominantly vegetarians, wheat bread and dairy consumers, and nonsmokers) revealed enrichment of two anaerobic lactic acid bacilli, namely, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, in patients with UC (Figures 4 and 5 and Table 2). This is in contrast to the majority of earlier studies from west [5,[29][30][31], although a similar trend has been reported previously in patients with UC from China, Russia, and Japan [32][33][34]. Also, a recent study from India has also reported an enrichment of Bifidobacterium in the fecal samples of patients with amoebic colitis patient [2,26].…”

Selenium Yeast Alleviates Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Chronic Colitis in Mice by Reducing Proinflammatory Cytokines and Regulating the Gut Microbiota and Their Metabolites

“…The abundance of Bifidobacterium increased in UC patients, and the abundance in active UC was higher than that in UC in continuous remission. 53 It has also been reported that there was no significant difference in the abundance of Bifidobacterium between UC patients and healthy people. 54 Meanwhile, our research found that selenium yeast increased the abundance of Prevotella .…”

“…It has been found that Prevotella is abundant in UC patients with continuous remission. 53 However, another study found that there is no significant difference in the abundance of Prevotella between UC patients and healthy people. 54 These opposite findings indicate that the gut microbiota might play a complex and dynamic role in the occurrence and development of IBD, which needs further research.…”