Microbial therapies for ulcerative colitis in adults

Patients with ulcerative colitis have an altered microbiome composition compared to people without an inflammatory bowel disease. Multiple randomised controlled trials have demonstrated that faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) induces remission and promotes mucosal healing in patients with mild to moderate active colitis. However, at the time of writing, studies on maintenance therapy using FMT are lacking, so it is not recommended to treat ulcerative colitisImdad, 2018.

At the time of writing, probiotics have not been shown to be effective in the management of ulcerative colitis.

The use of live microbial therapeutics (eg FMT, probiotics, ‘synthetic microbiota’) in the management of ulcerative colitis is being investigated.