LOCATION-IBD

Taken from our protocol (PMID: 38420375): Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)-associated arthritis is a frequent and potentially debilitating complication of IBD, that can affect those with or without active intestinal disease, and is often difficult to treat. The microbiome is known to play a role in IBD development and has been shown to be associated with inflammatory arthritis without concomitant IBD, but its role in IBD-associated arthritis is still unexplored. Further, disease localization is associated with development of IBD-associated arthritis, and stool compositional profiles are predictive of disease localization, yet mucosal location-specific microbiomes have not been well characterized. To address this gap in understanding, we designed a study (LOCATION-IBD) to characterize the mucosa-associated intestinal microbiome and metabolome in IBD-associated arthritis.Adults with an established diagnosis of IBD undergoing clinical colonoscopy between May of 2021 and February of 2023 were invited to participate in the first portion of this study, which has since been expanded to include longitudinal enrollment with followup sample collection; those interested in participation who meet inclusion criteria were enrolled. Prior to enrollment, participants are stratified into those with or without IBD-associated arthritis, and the vast majority (98+%) complete clinical colonoscopy with biopsy collection at a given visit.