Unraveling the Blood Microbiome in Postoperative Recurrence of Crohn's Disease

Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract, is a disease with a complex pathogenetic background. Hereditary factors, environmental factors and the gut flora play a varying role in its onset, however, this role remains unclear to date. We hypothesize to detect tiny fragments of microbial DNA from the gut in the bloodstream, due to disruption in the natural defences of the gut lining. If this is true, it may hold the key to understanding why Crohn's disease recurs after surgery. Our objective in this study is to test retrospectively, if we can detect any difference in microbial DNA from the blood of ileocolonic resection (ICR) patients that do and do not show recurrence at the time of follow-up endoscopy at 6 months.