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Microbes & Immunity

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Impact of dietary emulsifiers on the presence

of adherent-invasive Escherichia coli in Crohn’s
disease

Yu Lin 1,2† , Xiangqian Dong 3,4† , Hein Min Tun 2,5 , Wenli Huang 1,2 , Yinglei
Miao 3,4 , Juan Luo 3,4 , Fengrui Zhang 3,4 , Caroline Chevarin 6 , Anthony
Buisson 6,7 , Nicolas Barnich 6 , Jean-Frédéric Colombel 8 , Francis Ka Leung
1,2
1,2
Chan 2,9 , Yang Sun 3,4* , Zhilu Xu * , and Siew Chien Ng *
1 Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2 Microbiota I-Center (MagIC), Hong Kong SAR, China
3 Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University,
Kunming, Yunnan, China
4 Yunnan Province Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases, Kunming, Yunnan, China
5 The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
6 Université Clermont Auvergne, Inserm U1071, INRAE USC 1382, Microbes, Intestin, Inflammation
† These authors contributed equally et Susceptibilité de l’Hôte (M2iSH), Clermont-Ferrand, France
to this work.
7 Université Clermont Auvergne, Inserm, 3iHP, CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Service d’Hépato-Gastro
*Corresponding authors: Entérologie, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Siew Chien Ng 8
(siewchienng@cuhk.edu.hk) Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,
Zhilu Xu New York, United States of America
(lulux719@gmail.com) 9 Center for Gut Microbiota Research, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Yang Sun Hong Kong SAR, China
(sunyang_doctor@vip.sina.com)
Citation: Lin Y, Dong X, Tun HM,
et al. Impact of dietary emulsifiers
on the presence of adherent-
invasive Escherichia coli in Crohn’s Abstract
disease. Microbes & Immunity.
2025;2(4):67-78. Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) has been implicated in Crohn’s disease (CD)
doi: 10.36922/MI025230051 pathogenesis. We aimed to evaluate the impact of dietary factors on the presence of
Received: June 6, 2025 AIEC in patients with CD and to identify AIEC-associated mucosa microbial signatures
in regions with different urbanization levels. A total of 112 CD patients and healthy
Revised: July 18, 2025
controls were recruited from a rural area in China (Yunnan). Clinical demographics,
Accepted: August 1, 2025 food additive questionnaires, and ileal biopsies were collected from subjects in
Published online: August 21, 2025 rural China. AIEC was isolated from biopsy samples by an antibiotic protection
assay. Correlation between AIEC presence and food additives was evaluated using
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article multivariate logistic regression. In addition, a secondary dataset of an urban CD
distributed under the terms of the cohort (Hong Kong) was included for microbiome analysis. AIEC was detected in
Creative Commons Attribution the ileal mucosa in 20.83% of patients with CD in rural China. Multivariate analysis
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, showed that living in an urban area was associated with the presence of AIEC in CD
provided the original work is patients. Carrageenan consumption was positively correlated with AIEC presence in
properly cited. CD. AIEC-positive CD patients with primary education consumed more carrageenan
Publisher’s Note: AccScience than AIEC-negative CD patients (p=0.008). AIEC presence in CD patients was
Publishing remains neutral with associated with 23 microbial genera in both urban and rural areas. AIEC-positive
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional CD patients showed a decrease in anti-inflammatory pathways. AIEC colonizes the
affiliations. gut mucosa of CD patients in a rural area of China, with its presence significantly

Volume 2 Issue 4 (2025) 67 doi: 10.36922/MI025230051