Microbes determine the success or failure of fecal transplantation in diabetic patients

A small clinical trial in the Netherlands found that transplanting thin man's faeces temporarily increased insulin tolerance in obese men - but only half of the subjects respondedAfter further investigation, the researchers found that the success or failure of treatment could be predicted by analyzing the composition of fecal bacteria in each patientThis helps to facilitate the development of personalized fecal transplants for diabeticsThe paper was recently published in the journal Cell-Metabolism"We have found that people can be classified based on fecal samples"This makes us more sensitive to classify diseases, " says Max Niewwdorp of the Department of Internal Medicine and Vascular Medicine at the University of AmsterdamIn this randomized controlled trial, researchers recruited 38 obese men with metabolic syndrome with symptoms including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and excess fatThey also recruited 11 thin donors with healthy gut floraThe researchers took blood and fecal samples and randomly paired obese men with donorsexperiments showed that after transplanting fecal material, half of the participants experienced an improvement in insulin sensitivity, while the other half showed no changeThe researchers compared samples of gut microbes from two groups of people before treatment and found that those who did not respond had lower bacterial diversity in their intestines at firstHowever, these are only short-term changesAfter three months, the microbiome of all the recipients returned to its original state" With this new study, we can gain a deeper understanding of the interactionbetween the gut microbiome and human metabolismNieuwdorp saidthese results could also help researchers predict the success of fecal transplants If the recipient's stool samples are pre-screened, the treatment becomes more personalized "We're starting to see how we can help treat patients by replenishing missing strains of gut bacteria," Nieuwdorp said "