The microbiome and its therapeutic potential in inflammatory bowel diseases

While the etiology of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) remains unclear, there is substantial evidence for the link between the microbiota and the pathogenesis of IBD. Interest for the application of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) increases, especially now the insight in the intestinal microbiota in health and disease is growing rapidly by the possibility to study the microbiota composition and function, and their dynamics, using a wide variety of culture-independent approaches.
This thesis describes the microbiota composition in inflammatory bowel diseases and the impact of FMT on patients with ulcerative colitis and their microbiota.