The Potential and Pitfalls of Fecal Transplants

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Fecal microbiota transplantation, or FMT, has emerged as an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. But there’s still much scientists don’t know about the procedure. …

The gut microbiome can be compared to a forest, which is destroyed over time by a combination of infection and antibiotic use, says Majdi Osman, MD, clinical program director at the nonprofit stool bank OpenBiome. FMT helps to repopulate the gut ecosystem and restore its biodiversity.

“The jury’s still out on exactly what component of FMT is the one that is leading to the clinical effects,” says Osman. But it could be that through FMT, “all of these different pieces of the gut microbiome … are working together and are restored at the same time.”