Gastrointestinal Microbiota in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and Biliary Atresia With Vancomycin
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2012-01-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The goals of the proposed work are two fold:
Firstly, to see if the antibiotic vancomycin may be used for the early treatment of Biliary
Atresia (BA) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). The investigators hope to learn what
effect Vancomycin has on the bacteria that are present in stool, body fluid or intestinal
tissue on someone who has BA and PSC and if so by what mechanism. Secondly, the investigators
hope to learn to characterize human intestinal microbial communities (microbiome: the
collection or collectivity of microorganisms) using molecular methods, examine the mechanisms
of interaction between host and microbiome using genomic approaches, and determine how the
microbiome both preserves local health and promotes pathology. The investigators will focus
on primary sclerosing cholangitis, biliary atresia, as well as states of health. The
composition of the associated microbiome will be assessed based on ribosomal DNA and RNA
sequences, and attention will be given to richness (diversity), evenness (relative
abundance), and variation with respect to time, person, and anatomic niche. Host response at
the adjacent mucosal surface will be assessed based on genome-wide gene expression patterns.