Substantial Intestinal Microbiota differences between patients with Ulcerative Colitis from Ghana and Denmark

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a relapsing non-transmural inflammatory disease that is restricted to the colon and is characterized by flare-ups of bloody diarrhea. As the prevalence of UC increases in westernized countries by 3% each year, increased attention has been given to the role of intestinal microbiota and diet in UC. It has been speculated that there might be a link between environment, diet, microbiota, and the decreased prevalence of UC in Asia and Africa. In this study, we investigate intestinal microbiota diversity in healthy controls and patients with UC with and without active disease, from Ghana and Denmark. Our prokaryotic cluster and principal component analysis shows Danish healthy controls clustered together, but separate from healthy controls from Ghana, which are clustered together with Ghana and Danish UC patient groups. The Shannon diversity index for prokaryotes shows significantly increased diversity in Danish healthy controls and patients compared to the corresponding groups from Ghana. A significantly increased abundance of Escherichia coli was detected in healthy controls from Ghana in comparison to healthy controls from Denmark. Our data show a significantly increased abundance of eukaryotes species in the healthy control group from Ghana and Denmark compared to patient groups from Ghana and Denmark.