Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) affect 200,000 people in France and these pathologies still can’t be cured despite therapeutic advances in the treatment of symptoms for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Years of research have identified factors related to these diseases. It is known that IBD is linked to immune dysfunction, that 160 genes are involved, that the microbiota plays a central role and that the environment impacts as well, the prevalence of these diseases being significantly higher in countries with Western lifestyles. Many different causes have been identified to support numerous hypotheses which makes it all the more difficult to understand its underlying mechanisms.

The latest piece in this complex puzzle is the recent discovery by a team of Japanese researchers of the role of an oral bacterium in the intestinal inflammatory process. Carried out on an animal model, this study demonstrates how Klebsiella spp has the capacity to colonize the intestinal flora in particular when there is a dysbiosis. Once the intestine is colonized, this bacterium is a powerful inducer of lymphocytes Th1 and causes severe inflammation. This finding suggests that the oral cavity could be the reservoir of pathobiota that may favor gut diseases.¹

1. Ectopic colonization of oral bacteria in the intestine drives TH1 cell induction and inflammation – October 20, 2017