Antibiotics and probiotics in chronic pouchitis: a comparative proteomic approach

AIM: To profile protein expression in mucosal biopsies from patients with chronic refractory pouchitis following antibiotic or probiotic treatment, using a comparative proteomic approach. METHODS: Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry were used to characterize the changes related to antibiotic therapy in the protein expression profiles of biopsy samples from patients with chronic refractory pouchitis. The same proteomic approach was applied to identify differentially expressed proteins in the non-inflamed pouch before and after probiotic administration. RESULTS: In the first set of 2D gels, 26 different proteins with at least 2-fold changes in their expression levels between the pouchitis condition and antibiotic-induced remission were identified. In the second set of analysis, the comparison between mucosal biopsy proteomes in the normal and probiotic-treated pouch resulted in 17 significantly differently expressed proteins. Of these, 8 exhibited the same pattern of deregulation as in the pouchitis/pouch remission group. CONCLUSION: For the first time, 2D protein maps of mucosal biopsies from patients with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis were provided, and differentially expressed proteins following antibiotic/probiotic treatment were identified.