Inflammatory bowel diseases, namely Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are currently
considered multifactorial pathologies in which various combined environmental factors act on genetic
background, giving rise to chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Ulcerative colitis
is an inflammation of the colon caused by a dysregulated immune response to host intestinal microbiota
in genetically susceptible subjects. Ulcerative colitis has a strong impact on patients' quality of
life, as well as high costs for the health-care system. A great interest on the role of intestinal microbiota
modulation in ulcerative colitis is emerging. Several studies have shown an improvement of
inflammatory markers and symptoms in ulcerative colitis patients through treatments with probiotics
and prebiotics separately. Despite the low number of studies on the treatment of ulcerative colitis
by specific strains of probiotics plus selected prebiotics, i.e. synbiotics, the results are promising,
even if discordant. The mechanism of action in synbiotics supplementation is still unclear and needs
more investigation, although there is a large number of data indicating that the synergism between
probiotics and prebiotics favours the survival and implantation of probiotics into the gastrointestinal
tract with beneficial effects on human health by modulating the inflammatory response and gut
microbiota composition. The aim of this minireview is to describe the main in vitro, animal and
human studies performed up to now, that have used synbiotics to treat ulcerative colitis, and to
highlight limitations and future perspectives.
Long-Term Alteration of Intestinal Microbiota in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis by Antibiotic Combination Therapy