Abstract
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a set of multifactorial gut inflammatory conditions. The most common types of IBD are ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), which are attributed to a deregulated immune response to an imbalance in the gut microbiome. The occurrence of IBD is increasing worldwide, with over one million people in the USA and 2.5 million in Europe estimated to have one form of the disease. Furthermore, an increase in IBD has recently been reported in industrialized countries in Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East, which suggests that it has developed into a global disease with rising prevalence in each continent that may incur substantial healthcare costs in the future. Studying the gut microbiome of patients with IBD can provide a deeper understanding of the role that gut microbiota plays in the development of disease. This will further help in therapeutic microbiome manipulation of patients with IBD.