Changes of faecal microbiota in patients with Crohns disease treated with an elemental diet and total parenteral nutrition
Digestive and Liver Diseases, 06/14/2012  Clinical Article

Shiga H et al. – Faecal microbiota in Crohn's disease patients was markedly different from healthy subjects. Species diversity was reduced by total parenteral nutrition, but not by elemental diet.

• Stool samples were collected from 33 active Crohn's disease patients and 17 healthy subjects, and recollected after elemental diet (8 patients) and total parenteral nutrition (9 patients).
• Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of bacterial 16srDNA was performed to evaluate the whole microbiota.
• Specific quantitative PCR was then used to determine populations of predominant bacterial groups.

• In Crohn's disease patients, the number of terminal restriction fragments, which reflects bacterial species, was significantly lower.
• Populations of total bacteria and Bifidobacterium were significantly lower and the ratio of Enterococcus was higher.
• The number of terminal restriction fragments was significantly decreased after total parenteral nutrition, but not after elemental diet.
• Population of Bacteroides fragilis significantly decreased after elemental diet, while population of Enterococcus significantly increased after total parenteral nutrition.