Faecal short-chain fatty acid pattern in childhood coeliac disease is normalised after more than one year's gluten-free diet

Figures & data

Table 1 Data on patients studied and results of gut microbiota activity, as described by short chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations and SCFA fermentation index in individuals with coeliac disease and healthy controls

Group	A CD at presentation	B CD on GFD<1 year	C CD on GFD >1 year	D Healthy controls
No. of individuals	53	74	25	54
Age (years) (median; range)	6.7 0.5–17.5	4.5 1.0–17.5	21.5 2.5–32.5	3.5 0.25–15.5
Male/female	20/33	27/47	9/16	28/26
Number of of faecal samples	53	107	28	126
SCFA^§
Acetic acid	71.6±7.4**	69.1±3.7**	30.9±3.6	27.8±1.1
Propionic acid	15.7±1.3	15.2±0.8**	12.2±0.9	11.7±0.5
i-Butyric acid	2.5±0.2**	2.4±0.1**	2.4±0.3	1.7±0.1
n-Butyric acid	19.3±2.0	16.2±0.9	13.3±1.8	15.0±1.0
i-Valeric acid	3.3±0.2**	3.1±0.2**	2.9±0.4	2.1±0.1
n-Valeric acid	1.8±0.2	2.0±0.1**	1.8±0.2	1.4±0.1
Total SCFAs	114.7±10.2**	108.5±4.9*	64.0±4.1	60.2±2.1
Fermentation index^¤	0.29±0.03**	0.33±0.02**	0.07±0.06	0.05±0.02

CD, coeliac disease; GFD, gluten-free diet; SCFA, short-chain fatty acid.

^§Mean (mmol/kg faeces)±SEM.

*^/**Significant difference vs. controls; * p<0.05, *p<0.01.

^¤Fermentation index is the amount of acetic acid minus propionic acid and n-butyric acid, together divided by the total amount of SCFAs.

Fig. 1 Display of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) fermentation index (see Table 1) in individuals with coeliac disease (CD) at presentation, after less than 1 year of gluten-free diet (GFD), more than 1 year of GFD and healthy controls, respectively. The values are expressed as mean±SEM.