Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Sep 27, 2021; 13(9): 923-940
Published online Sep 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i9.923
How can probiotic improve irritable bowel syndrome symptoms?
Indira Benjak Horvat, Ivana Gobin, Andrea Kresović, Goran Hauser
Indira Benjak Horvat, Department of Gastroenterology, Varaždin General Hospital, Varažin 42000, Croatia
Ivana Gobin, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka 51000, Croatia
Andrea Kresović, Department of Gastroenterology, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Rijeka 51000, Croatia
Goran Hauser, Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, University of Rijeka, Rijeka 51000, Croatia
Author contributions: Hauser G and Gobin I conceived the original idea; Benjak Horvat I, Gobin I and Kresović A performed a comprehensive review of all available literature, synthesised the data; Benjak Horvat I, Gobin I and Kresović A wrote the manuscript; Benjak Horvat I, Gobin I and Hauser G contributed to the study design and manuscript structure and performed a final critical appraisal of the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ivana Gobin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Braće Branchetta 20, Rijeka 51000, Croatia. ivana.gobin@uniri.hr
Received: February 14, 2021
Peer-review started: February 14, 2021
First decision: March 16, 2021
Revised: March 22, 2021
Accepted: August 6, 2021
Article in press: August 6, 2021
Published online: September 27, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: The onset and manifestations of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is associated with a number of factors, and the pathophysiology involves various central and peripheral mechanisms. The results of most studies indicate that influencing the gut microbiota could significantly affect the improvement of subjective disorders in patients with IBS. The most important open questions are the design of a clinical study in which the IBS subgroup is not initially defined and whether all IBS subtypes can be treated with the same probiotic or combination of probiotics. IBS subtype-designed clinical studies are urgently needed as a good foundation to define recommendations and guidelines for the use of probiotics in IBS.