Poo testing finds gut bacteria changes in coeliac Kiwi kids

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-07-30 12:25

New Zealand

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NZ researchers tested the poo of 21 children in Canterbury, finding that those with coeliac disease mostly had the same gut bacteria as other kids, except for a few consistent changes. 9 of the children with coeliac disease were tested again after 6 months on a gluten-free diet. The bacteria in their guts only partly recovered back to what was seen in the non-coeliac kids. However, being on the gluten-free diet actually made additional changes to their gut bacteria that could potentially promote inflammation. The researchers say that in the future, doctors may be able to use poo testing to help them treat gut bacteria problems in kids with coeliac disease.

News release

From: Dr Olivia Ogilvie (co-author of this research)

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten that affects 1-3% of people globally, and is caused by a mix of known genetic factors, and unknown environmental ones. Our study looked at the gut bacteria in children with celiac disease from Canterbury, New Zealand, a region where the disease is unusually common, to better understand the microbiome's role in celiac disease development.

We compared the composition of gut bacteria and metabolite profile in 11 children newly diagnosed with celiac disease (before treatment) to 10 ‘healthy’ children, then retested the celiac children six months into a gluten-free diet. We found that celiac disease consistently caused a set of small changes in gut bacteria.

The clearest change was a shift among Bacteroides bacteria, with Bacteroides ovatus reliably increasing in children with celiac disease. This came with two related chemical changes: higher levels of a butyrate-related fermentation marker and a stress-related marker. Both were elevated before treatment and dropped after the gluten-free diet, though not all the way back to normal.

The gluten-free diet itself also caused a change, increasing a fat-loving bacterium called Bilophila wadsworthia. While our models couldn't reliably tell celiac and healthy children apart based on this data alone, the bacterial and chemical changes lined up in one consistent pattern, suggesting a potential biological connection and insight into disease development and recovery. Although this is a small, early study, these patterns are promising candidates for future diagnostic tests, tracking disease treatment status, and with further research, could suggest future therapeutic targets.

Conflict of interest statement: "This work was funded by the Health Research Council, conducted at the University of Canterbury. Dr Olivia Ogilvie (Principal Investigator) is an employee of the University of Canterbury and funding recipient. She is also CEO and co-founder of Opo Bio, a cell line development company who's work is unconnected to her academic work."

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Research Frontiers, Web page

Journal/
conference: Frontiers in Microbiology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Canterbury, University of Otago, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia; Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia; University of Melbourne, Australia;

Funder: The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This study was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand under grant number 22/572. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Funding sources for the original datasets are provided in their respective publications. A. S. Day’s research was supported by Cure Kids. P. J. Prendergast was supported by the ISCCD Mentor in the Mentee Program. S. S. C. Ho was supported by the Freemasons New Zealand.

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