Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 14, 2021; 27(18): 2219-2237
Published online May 14, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i18.2219
Responses to faecal microbiota transplantation in female and male patients with irritable bowel syndrome
Magdy El-Salhy, Christina Casen, Jørgen Valeur, Trygve Hausken, Jan Gunnar Hatlebakk
Magdy El-Salhy, Department of Medicine, Stord Helse-Fonna Hospital, Stord 5416, Norway
Magdy El-Salhy, Trygve Hausken, Jan Gunnar Hatlebakk, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen 5020, Norway
Magdy El-Salhy, Trygve Hausken, Jan Gunnar Hatlebakk, National Centre for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen 5020, Norway
Christina Casen, Genetic Analysis AS, Oslo 0485, Norway
Jørgen Valeur, Unger-Vetlesen Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo 0440, Norway
Author contributions: El-Salhy M designed the study, obtained the funding, administered the study, recruited the patients, performed faecal microbiota transplantation, collected, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript; Casen C contributed to the design of the study, analyzed the faecal bacteria and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Valeur J contributed to the design of the study, analyzed the short-chain fatty acids and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Hausken T and Hatlebakk JG contributed to the design of the study and to the analysis and interpretation of the data, and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Bergen.
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03822299) and www.cristin.no (ID657402).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Magdy El-Salhy, BSc, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Medicine, Stord Helse-Fonna Hospital, Tysevegen 64, Stord 5416, Norway. magdy.elsalhy@sklbb.no
Received: January 25, 2021
Peer-review started: January 25, 2021
First decision: February 27, 2021
Revised: March 13, 2021
Accepted: April 22, 2021
Article in press: April 22, 2021
Published online: May 14, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: A sex difference in the response to faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was previous reported for a subgroup of refractory irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients with severe bloating who had not responded to at least three conventional therapies for IBS. This subgroup only contained patients with diarrhoea-predominant (IBS-D) or mixed (IBS-M) IBS. The present study found no sex difference in the response to FMT among IBS patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms of IBS-D, constipation-predominant (IBS-C) and IBS-M. However, female patients with IBS-D respond better and have higher reduction of symptoms than males after FMT.