Almost all faecal and mucosal bacterial make-up studies for IBD show a dramatic loss in both various identified and unidentified Clostridium compared to normal people.
Here is a good paper:
Commensal Clostridia: leading players in the maintenance of gut homeostasis:
www.gutpathogens.com/content/pdf/1757-4749-5-23.pdfThat being said Clostridium are also some nasty little bugs - Tetanus, Botulism, Gangrene, C-Diff etc etc etc. They are all Clostridium infections.
So there is strain specific results - some kill us, make us horribly sick and others seem to help us.
Of special interest on the bad side is Autism - There was a group of autistic children that had their faecal samples taken and they showed significant increased Clostridium - Vancomycin targets these bacteria (think C-Diff). The children with Autism that took Vanco had a rapid, remarkable and dramatic improvement. Upon stopping Vanco they regressed again. It is hypothesized that there may be a Proprionic Acid producing Clostridium species that plays a significant role in Autism. So an unidentified neuro-toxic bacteria. But doctors and other researches did not follow with further studies because the thought of giving daily antibiotics was a bad thing... Which one can understand, but it the same time it's such a shame. These kids had a glimmer of hope for a short time.
Anyway - Clostiridium are fermenting bacteria so their products have a great deal of effects on us. They make Butyrate, propionic acid etc etc and these in turn effect our barriers - Even propionic acid seems to help our barriers, but perhaps to much is a bad thing... who knows.
As for all the in and out's no one knows. But it's nice to see researchers looking into probiotics from Clostridium as an option or potential treatment.
Just search the effects of Clostridium on IBD or read the papers that the study above cites.
Flagyl definitely effects them, but some may be resistant. Vanco I believe comes next after Flagyl failure.