Role of Healthy Bacteria in Ulcerative Colitis

Summary

Intestinal inflammation seen in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) results from an altered mucosal immune response to luminal bacterial antigens. Current research suggests that an inappropriate and persistent immune response against commensal intestinal bacterial flora plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). It has been also proposed that the signs and symptoms of IBD may be mediated by the increased intestinal permeability secondary to low grade inflammation in the gut mucosa. Increased intestinal permeability results in further exposure of underlying intestinal mucosa to luminal bacteria and antigens perpetuating the intestinal inflammation. Thus restoring intestinal permeability rather than only reduction of mucosal inflammation would thus be a desirable endpoint in the restoration of mucosal integrity and would be the harbinger of better long term outcome. Many clinical trials have shown that probiotics may have beneficial effect on IBD patients. Probiotics are hypothesized to work by several mechanisms though they are not clearly established. The role of probiotics in improving intestinal permeability has not been evaluated. The probiotic VSL #3 is easily available, cheap, effective and safe alternative or substitute for the existing therapeutic agents will be evaluated in this study for their efficacy, tolerability, compliance in inducing clinical response in patients with Ulcerative colitis. This will be a double blind randomized placebo controlled study to determine the clinical efficacy of 12 weeks of oral probiotics (VSL#3) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. The objectives of this study are to determine the efficacy of probiotics on clinical endoscopic and histological improvement, to find the improvement in faecal, serum and intestinal tissue inflammatory markers, improvement in intestinal permeability, improvement in Quality of life parameters.

Conditions

• Ulcerative Colitis

Interventions

OTHER

Control

Placebo will be orally administered daily for a period of 12 weeks in high dose and low dose

DRUG

Probiotic

Probiotic Capsules (450 billion CFU) will be orally administered daily for a period of 12 weeks and Probiotic in higher dose of (3600 billion CFU) will be administered daily for a period of 12 weeks

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ministry of Science and Technology, India

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Bikash Medhi, MD · Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-03-31

Primary Completion

2014-10-31

Completion

2014-10-31

Countries

• India

Study Locations