Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the chronic, relapsing, inflammatory disorders of the gut and is characterized by inflammation limited in most cases to the colon. Since gut microbiota play a critical role in the development and perpetuation of intestinal inflammation, the addition of probiotics to this complex system may exert a positive influence on gut inflammatory reactions.
Methods:A single center, open-label, intention-to-treat study involving patients with moderate-to-severe UC was performed to check whether a probiotic mixture containing Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Bifidobacterium longum given together with a standard treatment could decrease clinical and histopathology indexes for UC evaluation.
Results:The mixture given once a day for at least 2 months together with mesalazine and ciprofloxacin to patients in the acute phase of UC significantly reduced their Mayo Clinic Index values. Moreover, numbers of Lactobacilli isolated from patients feces were significantly increased, while those of Gram-negative rods decreased. The mixture given together with mesalazine to patients with UC in remission also caused a decrease of their clinical scores, but a more prominent and significant decrease of the histopathological index values in biopsy samples was observed.
Conclusions:Supplementation of standard therapy with the probiotic mixture used in this study was efficacious in inducing and maintaining remission in UC, and this effect was related to modulation of dysbiosis in the gut microbiota. analyzed randomized clinical trials and found that selected probiotics were efficacious in inducing and maintaining remission in UC [8]. Another review reached nearly the same conclusions on the efficacy of probiotics in UC [9].
Influence of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium Combination on the Gut• The aim of this study was to investigate in a single center, openlabel, intention-to-treat study involving patients with moderateto-severe UC whether a probiotic mixture containing Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Bifidobacterium longum given together with standard therapy could decrease clinical and histopathology indexes for UC.
Materials and Methods
PatientsAltogether, 51 patients (21 with UC in remission and 30 in the active phase of UC) of both sexes and between 18 and 72 years of age who were being treated in the Jagiellonian University Medical College Clinic of Gastroenterology in Cracow, Poland were enrolled. The study was conducted from 2008 to 2011 and was approved by the Jagiellonian University independent ethics committee (No KBET/5/B/2007). Written informed consent was obtained from all patients before enrollment.Inclusion criteria included an existing diagnosis of UC based on disease history, colonoscopy results, and histopathologic evaluation of biopsies from the colonic mucosa. The patients were not treated with antibiotics for three months before enrollment. Exclusion criteria were: diabetes, autoimmune diseases, severe systemic diseases, alcoho...