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Original research
Colon
PCR detection of segmented filamentous bacteria in the terminal ileum of patients with ulcerative colitis
  1. Alessia Finotti1,
  2. Jessica Gasparello1,
  3. Ilaria Lampronti1,
  4. Lucia Carmela Cosenza1,
  5. Giovanni Maconi2,
  6. Vincenzo Matarese3,
  7. Valentina Gentili4,
  8. Dario Di Luca4,
  9. Roberto Gambari1,
  10. Michele Caselli5
  1. 1Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  2. 2Department of Gastroenterology, Sacco Hospital, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
  3. 3Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  4. 4Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  5. 5School of Gastroenterology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Michele Caselli; csc{at}unife.it

Abstract

Objectives Segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) have been detected in a wide range of different animal. Recently, the presence of SFB-like bacteria was shown in biopsies of the terminal ileum and ileocecal valve of both patients with ulcerative colitis and control subjects. The aim of this study was to verify whether PCR methods could be used for the detection of SFB in biopsy of patients with ulcerative colitis and its relationships with the disease stage.

Methods PCR methods were used to identify SFB in biopsies from the terminal ileum of patients with ulcerative colitis, showing that this approach represents a useful tool for the detection of SFB presence and analysis of the bacterial load.

Results Our analysis detected SFB in all faecal samples of children at the time of weaning, and also show that putative SFB sequences are present in both patients with ulcerative colitis and control subjects. Results obtained using real-time quantitative PCR analysis confirm the presence of putative SFB sequences in samples from the terminal ileum of patients with ulcerative colitis and in control subjects.

Conclusions The presence of putative SFB sequence in both patients with ulcerative colitis and control subject suggests that SFB cannot be considered as being uniquely associated with the disease. The second conclusion is that among the patients with ulcerative colitis, a tendency does exist for active disease samples to show higher SFB load, opening new perspectives about possible identification and pharmacological manipulation of SFB-mediated processes for new therapeutic strategy.

  • ulcerative colitis
  • leum biopsy
  • segmented filamentous bacteria
  • polymerase-chain reaction
  • diagnosis

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2017-000172

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AF, DDL, RG, MC: study concept and design; GM, VM, VG, MC: collection of biological material; AF, JG, IL, LCC, VG: performing the experiments on biological material; AF, JG, IL, DDL, RG, MC: analysis and interpretation of data; AF, JG, GM, DDL, RG, MC: writing and editing of the manuscript; GM, DDL, RG, MC: critical revision of the manuscript and important intellectual content. All authors approved the final draft of this manuscript for submission.

    • Funding This research was supported by grants from Consorzio Interuniversitario di Biotecnonologie (CIB) 2016, and by Fondo per le Agevolazioni alla Ricerca (FAR 2016) of Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval The protocol was approved by the local Ethics Committee of Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria di Ferrara (Protocol n.86–2013, 20 June 2013).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement ll relevant data are within the paper and its supporting materials