Gastrointestinal dysbiosis and Escherichia coli pathobionts in inflammatory bowel diseases.

In our own study, hemolytic I E. coli i were isolated more frequently from patients with IBD, 7 of 15, compared with healthy controls, 1 of 9; this difference did, however, not reach statistical significance (p = 0.18), Paper V. The clonal nature of I E. coli i isolated from IBD patients contradicts the possible assumption that IBD through an impaired immune system allows an overgrowth of I E. coli i at random. This indicates that a patient with IBD with a concomitant I Salmonella i , I Campylobacter i or I C. difficile i infection probably has a higher risk of a positive stool sample simply because of more frequent submission of stool samples from IBD patients compared to patients with acute gastroenteritis alone [16]. Increased levels of antibodies towards I E. coli i antigens in IBD patients, Paper VII, supports a more direct interaction of I E. coli i with the immune system in IBD patients, even though IBD medications will also influence the serologic response, Paper VIII. Increased levels of antibodies towards I E. coli i antigens in IBD patients further support a more direct interaction of I E. coli i with the immune system in IBD patients, Paper VII, even though IBD medications will also influence the serologic response, Paper VIII. Recently, through metagenomics in a pediatric population comparing IBD patients with their healthy siblings, a strong correlation to IBD has been found with the abundance of bacterial virulence genes, enriched specifically in the UC microbiome with I E. coli i abundance, suggesting that I E. coli i is a central driver in UC pathogenesis [113]. [Extracted from the article]