A comprehensive review on clinical outcome of probiotic and synbiotic therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases

Abstract

© 2018 by the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. The composition of gut microflora and its metabolic activity are closely correlated with the host immune system, and the changes in the biometric of the microbiome lead to inflammatory diseases like inflammatory bowel disease. The supplementation of probiotics and synbiotic could indeed manipulate the microflora, which can be an alternative therapy for ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease. Several in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies for the initiation and maintenance of remission in patients with inflammatory bowel disease have been completed. Those studies evaluated the efficacy of many probiotic formulations, especially about VSL#3. Even though the clinical studies proved that almost all the probiotic interventions are safe and bring improvement to patients, some studies are deficient in sample size, proper controls, and follow-ups. This paper summarizes the possible mechanism of inflammatory bowel disease development, probiotics, the clinical outcome of probiotic and synbiotic interventions for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, as well as the adverse effect of probiotic treatments.