Remember the article about the new organ in the human body? As you know, most failed organs can be replaced. That’s what transplantation is for. So, the microbiota can also be transplanted.
Abroad, they are coming close to introducing fecal transplantation into medical guidelines. So far, there is only one center in Russia (in Novosibirsk) where this service can be provided to patients suffering from dysbacteriosis, inflammatory bowel diseases or neurodegenerative diseases.
About the essence of the new method
Scientists do not call the microbiota a human organ for nothing. Different types of bacteria do not just live and work in the intestines – in the process of functioning, they build complex systems of connections with each other, and these connections also provide many different important functions. Therefore, microbiota transplantation is essentially a transplant of a new organ with an already functioning system of interconnections.
Cultures of bacteria make up to 30% of the dry mass of feces. That is, you see your kind tenants every day, you can even wave goodbye to them.
Fecal microbiota transplantation is the transplantation of cultures of normal intestinal microflora from a healthy donor to a patient. This procedure helps to expel pathogenic microorganisms from the intestines, replacing them with harmless bacteria.
Clinical studies of this experimental method of treatment have yielded positive results and have shown an advantage over antibiotics in some situations. Antibiotics, getting into the focus of inflammation, prevent the growth of pathogenic bacteria. As a result of such treatment, the condition may not only not improve, but even worsen, because the normal intestinal microflora has not been restored.
Research on this topic at the University of Amsterdam showed a clear advantage of transplantation over standard antibiotic therapy. In the group of volunteers who received antibiotics, 26% recovered. In the group treated with microbiota transplant, 93% recovered.
Coprophagia (eating one’s own or other people’s excrement) is characteristic of rabbits and is considered a healthy process: rabbits eat part of their feces every day. If one of them gets sick, he can start eating the excrement of his healthy neighbors in order to recover.
