Gut microbial characteristics of hospitalized patients with active ulcerative colitis and sarcopenia
Sarcopenia is increasingly recognized as a clinically important complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, most prior studies have focused exclusively on the prognostic implications of sarcopenia in IBD, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of its pathogenesis. The gut-muscle axis has emerged as a novel framework for understanding the complex bidirectional communication between the gastrointestinal system and skeletal muscle, and gut microbiota is considered as the core regulater of this axis. In this study, we have enrolled hospitalized patients with active ulcerative colitis (UC) in the department of Gastroenterology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and compared the composition and function of the gut microbiome between UC patients with and without sarcopenia.