So, at what point do you seriously consider being a recipient of another person’s faecal material, surely one would have to be at deaths door to make that determination? Well, your first response may still be ‘Yuck’, even though we have been discussing the merits and potential benefits of triggering a restructuring of the microbiota for some years now. Well let’s say that the implications for beneficial outcome in a wide range of problems exists (subject to finding enough suitable donors) but that Clostrium Difficile resolution is the condition where most are currently preparing to confer credibility.
This free to read paper in the journal Current Opinion in Gastroenterology explores the concept, raises some interesting points and acts a s a self-help guide! It was written in 2013, so mood, interest and confidence has moved on somewhat.[1]
This paper out in Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine, exposes just a little of where research is now going, and how obesity and metabolic disorders are also in the cross hairs of this transplant therapy.[2]
References
[1] Aroniadis OC, Brandt LJ. Fecal microbiota transplantation: past, present and future. Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2013 Jan;29(1):79-84. View Full Paper
[2] Marotz CA, Zarrinpar A. Treating Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome with Fecal Microbiota Transplantation. Yale J Biol Med. 2016 Sep 30;89(3):383-388 View Full Paper
