Efficacy and safety of probiotics in the induction and maintenance of inflammatory bowel disease remission: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Probiotics have been widely used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) due to their special conditioning effects on the intestinal flora, but their efficacy in inducing and maintaining remission is still controversial. In the present study, we analyzed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the treatment of probiotics in IBD to systematically evaluate the efficacy of probiotics on the induction and maintenance of remission of IBD. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese Journal Full-text Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Wanfang, and Weipu databases were searched for RCTs on the treatment of probiotics in IBD induction and/or maintenance of remission. Two researchers independently extracted literature data and cross-checked the extracted data. The Cochrane bias risk assessment tool and the Jadad score were used to evaluate the quality of the literature. RevMan 5.20 software was used for the meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of ten RCTs were included, which included 777 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the clinical recurrence rate of probiotics in the CD remission phase and the control group [relative risk (RR): 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61-1.06, P=0.12]. The clinical recurrence rate of UC in remission phase, the efficacy of probiotics compared with control group were not significantly different (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.80-1.42, P=0.65). The induction remission rate of UC during the active phase, the efficacy of probiotics is better than that of the control group (RR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09-1.98, P=0.01). DISCUSSION: In the present study, a systematic analysis of the efficacy of probiotics in CD and UC found that probiotics can induce remission during the active period of UC, but have no obvious therapeutic advantage in maintaining CD and UC remission.
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The efficacy of probiotic strains in maintaining remission in IBD is still unclear.
“However, to date, the efficacy of probiotic strains in maintaining remission in IBD is still unclear [114,115]”
From The Potential Impact of Probiotics on Human Health: An Update on Their Health-Promoting Properties (2024) · cites this paper as [114]
Six recent meta-analyses showed that probiotic strains induce remission in IBD, with much evidence of efficacy for ulcerative colitis but less evidence for Crohn's disease.
“although six recent meta-analyses [114,115,116,117,118] showed that probiotic strains induce remission in IBD, with much evidence of efficacy for ulcerative colitis (UC) but less evidence for Crohn’s disease (CD) [116,117].”
From The Potential Impact of Probiotics on Human Health: An Update on Their Health-Promoting Properties (2024) · cites this paper as [114]
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- Authors
- Chen, M., Feng, Y., & Liu, W.
- Affiliations
- First Hospital of China Medical University (CN)
- Shenyang The Fourth Hospital of People (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Wanli
- ORCID
- Venue
- Annals of Palliative Medicine
- Publisher
- AME Publishing Company
- Published
- 2021-11
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 11821-11829
- ISSN
- 2224-5820 (ISSN-L)
- 2224-5839
- OpenAlex
- W3214752435
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Annals of Palliative Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Keywords
- probiotics, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, remission induction, remission maintenance, clinical recurrence, gut microbiota
- MeSH terms
- Colitis, Ulcerative, Crohn Disease, Humans, Remission Induction, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Probiotics
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