Comparison of the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium Population in Fecal Microbiome of Celiac Disease Patients on Gluten-Free Diet With Healthy Subjects

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic autoimmune disease triggered by gluten and other environmental factors, such as intestinal microbiota in genetically predisposed persons. This study aimed to evaluate the composition of the target gut microbiota population in patients with CD and to compare it with healthy individuals.

In this case-control study, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus were evaluated in the fecal samples of 20 celiac patients on a gluten-free diet (GFD) with 20 healthy individuals referred to the Celiac Disease Department, Tehran, Iran, from August 2019 to February 2020. Microbial DNA extracted from fecal samples was evaluated by specific primer pairs using the real-time-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 21.

The results of the demographic information of participants regarding the gender and the mean age as well as the Marsh classification showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P>0.05). The comparison of intestinal microbiota between the two study groups revealed that the rate of Bifidobacterium spp. and Lactobacillus spp. was significantly lower in celiac patients compared to the control group.

The results of this study confirmed the dysbiosis in celiac patients compared to healthy subjects. In addition, changes in the gut microbiome may contribute to the pathogenesis of the CD.