Gut Microbiome Variability in Pediatric Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The gut microbiome is more than just the gastrointestinal tract and the digestive organ. It is a unique community of microbes, the particular composition of which may play an important role in the development of disease, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Research to date has focused on the role that genetics, the immune system, and environmental conditions may play in IBD, but additional investigations are needed to fully understand the connection between gut microbiota and the development of the disease. To illuminate this connection, data were analyzed from the Integrative Human Microbiome Project from children with Crohn′s disease (CD), and these data were compared to comparable data from healthy children. Data samples were analyzed through statistical analyses including the Welch t ‐test and PERMANOVA test. Significant differences in the composition of the gut microbial communities were observed between individuals with IBD and the control group. Specifically, samples with IBD had an increased abundance o f Escherichia coli and Ruminococcus torques. Additionally, increased levels of Bacteroides fragilis were observed, indicating that elevated levels of Bacteroides fragilis , associated with the Bacteroides fragilis toxin, may have a potential role in the onset of IBD. Furthermore, CD samples exhibited decreased Chao1 richness when compared with healthy control samples. These findings signify a potential connection between the gut microbiome and the abundance of certain microbiota with IBD onset. This paper is aimed at identifying potential connections associated with the presence of specific microbiota in the gut microbiome and the manifestation of chronic disease, particularly IBD.