Overview of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation and Its Clinical Applications

Gut microbiota contains many types of parasites, viruses, archaebacteria, and bacteria. There is a bilateral relationship between the gut microbiota and the immune system, and they regulate each other. Many experiments have used Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) in a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) and non-GI disorders. FMT has beneficial effects on patients with Clostridioides difficile. The aim of the current review article was to gain insight on the relationship between gut microbiota and various immune system components in order to investigate its links with various human diseases as well as to explore the application of FMT-based therapeutic interventions in several GI and non-GI disorders.

Systematically, we searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Science Direct databases using the following keywords: Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, Microbiota, and Immune system. Finally, 127 articles in English language reporting Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, Microbiota, and Immune system were included for the final analysis.

FMT is one of the novel therapeutic approaches in the field of medicine that improves and modulates GI microbiota. For this reason, physicians and researchers are making an attempt to use it to treat various GI and non-GI diseases. The GI microbiota is important in metabolism, immune system modulation, the synthesis of various types of vitamins, etc. Currently, FMT is proposed by the FDA (The US Food and Drug Administration) for patients with Clostridioides difficile who do not respond to standard therapies. Currently, FMT-based therapeutic interventions have scarcely been applied for the treatment of other diseases, such as IBD. Nevertheless, it is still considered as an efficient therapy for some of IBD patients. However, several concerns regarding the clinical application of FMT are still remaining to be addressed necessiating conducting further detailed studies in this regard.