Effects of the supplementation with a multispecies probiotic on clinical and laboratory recovery of children with newly diagnosed celiac disease: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of a multispecies probiotic on clinical and laboratory recovery of chil-dren with celiac disease (CeD) at diagnosis.Methods: Children with newly diagnosed CeD entered a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. A gluten-free diet (GFD) plus a multispecies probiotic or placebo were administered for 12 weeks. Growth, laboratory, and clinical parameters were recorded at enrollment, after 3 and 6 months of follow-up.Results: Overall, 96 children completed the study: 49 in group A (placebo) and 47 in group B (probiotic). A significant increase of BMI-Z score was found in both groups after 3 and 6 months of treatment ( p < 0.001), however the increase of BMI-Z score was significantly higher and faster in Group B than in Group A. Other clinical and laboratory parameters improved in both groups after 3 and 6 months ( p < 0.001), but no difference was found between the groups and a comparable time trend was observed in both groups. Conclusions: Treatment with a multispecies probiotic induced a higher and faster increase of BMI in children with newly diagnosed CeD. The mechanism of this positive effect remains to be elucidated.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )