title: Fecal transplant: a safe and sustainable clinical therapy for restoring intestinal microbial balance in human disease?
abstract: Recent studies have suggested an association between intestinal microbiota composition and human disease, however causality remains to be proven. With hindsight, the application of fecal transplantation (FMT) does indeed suggest a causal relation between interfering with gut microbiota composition and a resultant cure of several disease states. In this review, we aim to show the available evidence regarding the involvement of intestinal microbiota and human (autoimmune) disease. Moreover, we refer to (mostly case report) studies showing beneficial or adverse effects of fecal transplantation on clinical outcomes in some of these disease states. If these findings can be substantiated in larger randomized controlled double blind trials also implementing gut microbiota composition before and after intervention, fecal transplantation might provide us with novel insights into causally related intestinal microbiota, that might be serve as future diagnostic and treatment targets in human disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, AMC, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vrieze
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: de Groot
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kootte
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knaapen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Nood
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nieuwdorp
mesh_terms: D001691:Biological Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome / Q000502:physiology*; D019936:Probiotics