Dysbiosis of gut microbiota in Polish patients with ulcerative colitis: a pilot study

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic immune-mediated disorder, whose etiology is not fully understood and for which no effective treatment is available. Recently, research has focused on the dysbiosis of gut microbiome in UC. However, the results so far remain inconsistent and insufficient to understand the microbial component in UC pathogenesis. In this study, we determine specific changes in the gut microbial profile in Polish UC patients compared to healthy subjects for the first time. Using 16S rRNA gene-based analysis we have described the intestinal microbial community in a group of 20 individuals (10 UC patients and 10 controls). Our results after multiple hypothesis testing correction demonstrated substantially lower gut microbiome diversity in UC cases compared to the controls and considerable differences at the phylum level, as well as among 13 bacterial families and 20 bacterial genera ( p < 0.05). UC samples were more abundant in Proteobacteria (8.42%), Actinobacteria (6.89%) and Candidate Division TM7 (2.88%) than those of healthy volunteers (2.57%, 2.29% and 0.012%, respectively). On the other hand, Bacteroidetes and Verrucomicrobia were presented at a lower level in UC relative to the controls (14% and 0% vs 27.97% and 4.47%, respectively). In conclusion, our results show a reduced gut microbial diversity in Polish UC patients, a reduction of taxa with an anti-inflammatory impact and an increased abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria.