Probiotics and inflammatory bowel disease

Alterations in gut microbiota composition appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of several disorders, including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Many biological functions are carried out by the human intestinal flora. In recent times new techniques of analysis have shown that healthy subjects have a different composition of the gut microbiota compared to those with IBD, although the real mechanism of this dysbiosis has not been proved, yet. On this basis, several research studies, controlled trials and meta-analysis have investigated the role of different probiotics in therapeutic management of IBD, suggesting that some kinds of probiotics may be useful, especially in the phase of maintenance of remission. Currently, there are evidence for using some strains of probiotics in quiescent ulcerative colitis and pouchitis by ileal pouchanastomosis, but few reliable data regarding Crohn’s disease. More research is needed to exhaustively understand when and which probiotics are useful in IBD, their mechanisms of action as well as their safety and effectiveness in these diseases.