Ricerc@Sapienza

This short communication reports the preliminary results of Fecal Microbial Transplantation (FMT) impact on microbiota, microbial translocation (MT), and immune activation in four recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (R-CDI) patients. After FMT a restore of gut microbiota composition with a significant increase of fecal acetyl-putrescine and spermidine and fecal acetate and butyrate, a decrease of immune activation of T cells CD4+ and CD8+levels, and of LPS binding protein (LBP) level, were observed.

The gut microbiota is implicated in digestive, metabolic and immune processes of the host. The physiological and pathophysiological functions of the intestinal microbiota depend of its composition, and several individual or external factors may be associated with the presence of some categories, phyla or species of microorganisms in the gut. In particular, two bacterial phyla - Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes - are predominant in the human gut and their relative concentrations seem to be related with age, gender, diet habits and weight status.

BACKGROUND: The literature shows that gut microbiota composition is related with health, and a lot of individual and outer factors may determine its variability. In particular, nutrition and exercise seem to influence the presence in the gut of the two major bacterial phyla of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. STUDY DESIGN: An ongoing cross-sectional investigation is aimed to explore these associations in humans.

In a previous report of two married cohabiting couples affected by polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), we noticed that the wife of one couple and both members of the other couple suffered from symptomatic diverticular disease (DD), whose diagnosis was made before the onset of PMR. We investigated whether DD might be a risk factor for the development of PMR. We conducted a case-control study informed on a database containing the prospectively collected medical records of consecutive PMR patients.

There is evidence that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is affected by gut microbiota. Therefore, we investigated its modifications in pediatric NAFLD patients using targeted metagenomics and metabolomics. Stools were collected from 61 consecutive patients diagnosed with nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), or obesity and 54 healthy controls (CTRLs), matched in a case-control fashion.

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), considered the leading cause of chronic liver disease in children, can often progress from non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). It is clear that obesity is one of the main risk factors involved in NAFLD pathogenesis, even if specific mechanisms have yet to be elucidated. We investigated the distribution of intestinal bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the stools of four groups of children: obese, obese with NAFL, obese with NASH, and healthy, age-matched controls (CTRLs).

Physical frailty and sarcopenia (PF&S) share multisystem derangements, including variations in circulating amino acids and chronic low-grade inflammation. Gut microbiota balances inflammatory responses in several conditions and according to nutritional status. Therefore, an altered gut-muscle crosstalk has been hypothesized in PF&S. We analyzed the gut microbial taxa, systemic inflammation, and metabolic characteristics of older adults with and without PF&S.

We have investigated the effect of intake of two different orange juices from Citrus sinensis cv. "Cara Cara" and cv. "Bahia" on faecal microbiota and metabolome using an integrated meta-omics approach. Following a randomized crossover design, healthy subjects daily consumed 500 mL of orange juice from Cara Cara or Bahia juices or an isocaloric control drink. Stools were collected at baseline (T0) and after a week (T7) of intervention.

Background and Aims. Recent evidence implicates gut microbiota
(GM) and immune alterations in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We assess
GM profile and peripheral levels of immunological, neuronal and bacterial
molecules in ASD children and controls. Alarmin HMGB1 was explored as a
non-invasive biomarker to monitor gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms.
Methods.Thirty ASD children and 14 controls entered into the study. GM
metagenomic analysis was performed for 16 ASD patients and 7 controls. GM

Glioma is a CNS tumor with few therapeutic options. Recently, host microbiota has been involved in the immune modulation of different tumors, but no data are available on the possible effects of the gut-immune axis on brain tumors. Here we investigated the effect of gut microbiota alteration in a syngeneic (GL261) mouse model of glioma, treating mice with two antibiotics (ABX) and evaluating the effects on tumor growth, microbe composition, natural killer (NK) cells and microglia phenotype.