Gut microbiota contributes to the distinction between two traditional Chinese medicine syndromes of ulcerative colitis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is considered to be closely associated with alteration of intestinal microorganisms. According to the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory, UC can be divided into two disease syndromes called Pi-Xu-Shi-Yun (PXSY) and Da-Chang-Shi-Re (DCSR). The relationships among gut microbiota, TCM syndromes, and UC pathogenesis have not been well investigated. AIM: To investigate the role of gut microbiota in UC and the distinction of microbiota dysbiosis between PXSY and DCSR syndromes. METHODS: From May 2015 to February 2016, UC patients presenting to LongHua Hospital who met the established inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled in this retrospective study. Fresh stool specimens of UC patients with PXSY or DCSR were collected. The feces of the control group came from the health examination population of Longhua Hospital. The composition of gut bacterial communities in stool samples was determined by the pyrosequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA. The high-throughput sequencing reads were processed with QIIME, and biological functions were predicted using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States. RESULTS: increased in PXSY patients. The differential functional pathways of the gut microbiome between the PXSY and DCSR groups mainly included lipid metabolism, immunity, and the metabolism of polypeptides. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that the gut microbiota contributes to the distinction between the two TCM syndromes of UC.