Mucosally associated bacterial flora of the human colon: quantitative and species specific differences between normal and inflamed colonic biopsies

This study quantified and characterised changes to a species level for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria from colonic biopsies of acute ulcerative colitis (UC) comparing them with that of a normal control group. Fresh endoscopic biopsies of the recto-sigmoid region were obtained during flexible sigmoidoscopy from 10 patients suffering an acute attack of UC and a similar number of healthy controls. Quantitative estimation was carried out on selective media for total aerobic, anaerobic,