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Recipients of fecal transplants could take on donor traits

May 10, 2017

It’s a topic that makes most people feel pretty uncomfortable, but it’s been shown to have huge benefits for patients who go through with it. Yes, were talking about fecal transplants.

If you haven’t heard of this procedure, don’t worry; it’s exactly what it sounds like. Fecal matter is taken from a healthy donor, and after being mixed with a solution and strained, is transplanted into the recipient via colonoscopy, endoscopy, or enema. The aim is to replace “bad” gut bacteria with “good” bacteria, and it is commonly used to treat complications from antibiotic use, as well as increasingly conditions such as chronic fatigue, Parkinson’s, autism, and irritable bowel syndrome.

While it is not yet a common treatment, doctors are finding that side effects to the treatment are beyond simply introducing “good” bacteria, with recipients being found to actually take on traits of the donor.

Associate Professor Patrick Charles, from the Department of Infectious Diseases at Austin Health has presented the unusual findings at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians congress in Melbourne. Besides being a successful way to treat the overgrowth of bad bacteria, he said that the change in the mix of bacteria can actually alter some characteristics of the person getting the transplant.

“There have been people who have taken on the shape of the donor, such as if the donor is either overweight or underweight they’ve become more like that,” he said.

“There’s even been reports of some people who have never been depressed getting a transplant from someone who’s had depression and ending up with their first episode of depression after that.”

The findings are an exciting potential development into treating depressive and weight disorders.