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BMC Medicine
Published in: BMC Medicine 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

Long-term effects on luminal and mucosal microbiota and commonly acquired taxa in faecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection

Authors: Jonna Jalanka, Eero Mattila, Hanne Jouhten, Jorn Hartman, Willem M. de Vos, Perttu Arkkila, Reetta Satokari

Published in: BMC Medicine | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Background

Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (rCDI). It restores the disrupted intestinal microbiota and subsequently suppresses C. difficile. The long-term stability of the intestinal microbiota and the recovery of mucosal microbiota, both of which have not been previously studied, are assessed herein. Further, the specific bacteria behind the treatment efficacy are also investigated.

Methods

We performed a high-throughput microbiota profiling using a phylogenetic microarray analysis of 131 faecal and mucosal samples from 14 rCDI patients pre- and post-FMT during a 1-year follow-up and 23 samples from the three universal donors over the same period.

Results

The FMT treatment was successful in all patients. FMT reverted the patients’ bacterial community to become dominated by Clostridium clusters IV and XIVa, the major anaerobic bacterial groups of the healthy gut. In the mucosa, the amount of facultative anaerobes decreased, whereas Bacteroidetes increased. Post-FMT, the patients’ microbiota profiles were more similar to their own donors than what is generally observed for unrelated subjects and this striking similarity was retained throughout the 1-year follow-up. Furthermore, the universal donor approach allowed us to identify bacteria commonly established in all CDI patients and revealed a commonly acquired core microbiota consisting of 24 bacterial taxa.

Conclusions

FMT induces profound microbiota changes, therefore explaining the high clinical efficacy for rCDI. The identification of commonly acquired bacteria could lead to effective bacteriotherapeutic formulations. FMT can affect microbiota in the long-term and offers a means to modify it relatively permanently for the treatment of microbiota-associated diseases.
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Metadata
Title
Long-term effects on luminal and mucosal microbiota and commonly acquired taxa in faecal microbiota transplantation for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection
Authors
Jonna Jalanka
Eero Mattila
Hanne Jouhten
Jorn Hartman
Willem M. de Vos
Perttu Arkkila
Reetta Satokari
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medicine / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1741-7015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-016-0698-z

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