Why are bacteria more likely to colonize when doing FMT compared to taking regular probiotics?
- Thread starter Prodigyev
- Start date
It's because they are FROM a human gut, so they are already selected for being able to survive there! SOME of the probiotic species (such as Lactobacillus acidophilus) were originally isolated from stool, but none of them have been cultivated in the gut for many, many generations.
In addition, FMT contains MANY more species than probiotics. The most diverse of regular probiotics have 20-30 species (most contain <10, and some really rare probiotics, particularly Equilibrium, have >100, albeit none of them isolated from the gut), whereas FMT contains hundreds or even thousands. The majority of species even from a FMT don't colonize long-term, but when you have hundreds of them in total, the chance that at least a few species DO colonize is very high.
In addition, FMT contains MANY more species than probiotics. The most diverse of regular probiotics have 20-30 species (most contain <10, and some really rare probiotics, particularly Equilibrium, have >100, albeit none of them isolated from the gut), whereas FMT contains hundreds or even thousands. The majority of species even from a FMT don't colonize long-term, but when you have hundreds of them in total, the chance that at least a few species DO colonize is very high.
Michael Harrop
Well-known member
It's covered in the probiotic guide: https://humanmicrobiome.info/probiotic-guide/
- Thread Starter
- #4
Thanks! This was a very helpful and well thought out reply! I appreciate it!