Crohn's Disease (CD)

Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, is a disease with a complex pathogenetic background. Hereditary factors, environmental factors and the gut flora play a varying role in its onset, however, this role remains unclear to date. We hypothesize to detect tiny fragments of microbial DNA from the gut in the bloodstream, due to disruption in the natural defences of the gut lining. If this is true, it may hold the key to understanding why Crohn's disease recurs after surgery. Our objective in this study is to test retrospectively, if we can detect any difference in microbial DNA from the blood of ileocolonic resection (ICR) patients that do and do not show recurrence at the time of follow-up endoscopy at 6 months.

The gut microbiota is considered to constitute a "microbial organ" which has pivotal roles in the intestinal diseases and body's metabolism. Evidence from animal and human studies strongly supports the link between intestinal bacteria and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Dozens of studies reported its efficacy in treatment of severe Clostridium difficile colitis. Preliminary studies using fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for Ulcerative Colitis (UC), Crohn's diseases (CD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and constipation have also met with some success. However, the results on CD is very limited. This marks the initial step in exploring the potential efficacy of fecal bacteriotherapy for CD. The investigators aim to evaluate the effectiveness, durability, and safety of FMT in a cohort of at least 500 patients with CD over a ten-year period