Characteristics of mucosa-associated gut microbiota during treatment in Crohn’s disease

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The dysbiosis of the gut microbiome is evident in Crohn's disease (CD) compared with healthy controls (HC), although the alterations from active CD to remission after treatment are unclear. AIM: To characterize the mucosa-associated gut microbiota in patients with CD before and after the induction therapy. METHODS: The basic information was collected from the subjects and the CD activity index (CDAI) was calculated in patients. A 16S rRNA sequencing approach was applied to determine the structures of microbial communities in mucosal samples including the terminal ileal, ascending colon, descending colon and rectum. The composition and function of mucosa-associated gut microbiota were compared between samples from the same cohort of patients before and after treatment. Differential taxa were identified to calculate the microbial dysbiosis index (MDI) and the correlation between MDI and CDAI was analyzed using Pearson correlation test. Predictive functional profiling of microbial communities was obtained with PICRUSt. RESULTS: . CONCLUSION: The dysbiosis of mucosa-associated microbiota was associated with the disease phenotype and may become a potential diagnostic tool for the recurrence of disease.