Molecular comparison of dominant microbiota associated with injured versus healthy mucosa in ulcerative colitis.

摘要

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterised by a chronic inflammation of the colorectal mucosa. The role of the gut microbiota in triggering or maintenance of the mucosal inflammation is strongly suspected.1 We may postulate that a localised dysbiosis could explain the localisation of the lesions. Many of the recent studies have been made possible by the development of culture-independent techniques, which identify bacteria on the basis of comparisons of the nucleic acid sequence of rRNA molecules. Temporal temperature-gradient gel elec-trophoresis (TTGE) showed that in healthy people dominant microbiota associated with colonic mucosa is similar from the caecum to the rectum. This has also been observed in Crohn's disease, and the dominant microbiota associated with ulcerated mucosa did not differ markedly from the microbiota associated with non-ulcerated mucosa.