MUC5AC and clostridium difficile infection: Sangster et al. (2016) also reported an increase in the abundance of Akkermansia muciniphila in CDI patients, potentially linked to the capacity of Akkermansia to degrade mucin, which may provide a selective advantage in CDI. In our study, samples MS0223 and MS1753 exhibited an abnormal expansion of the family Prevotellaceae (16.50% and 32.25%, respectively). Prevotellaceae is a family that can enzymatically disrupt mucosal barrier function and tends to be more abundant in intestinal biopsy samples isolated from patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (Nagao-Kitamoto et al., 2016).