What Microbiota Transplantation Is
If gut problems have dragged on for years and treatment brings only temporary relief. If your child has a diagnosis and standard care is moving slower than you hoped. If a course of antibiotics left things worse than before. In all of these cases the cause may lie in a disturbed balance of gut bacteria — and that is exactly what this method addresses.
In Plain Language
About a hundred trillion bacteria live in the human gut — together they are called the microbiota. It is like a living garden inside the body. When its inhabitants are healthy and in balance, food is digested better, immunity is stronger, and mood and wellbeing are steadier — the gut and the brain are directly connected.
When that balance is disturbed — too much of one bacterium, too little of another — digestive problems follow, and not only digestive ones. A microbiota transplant is meant to restore the balance when the gut can no longer do it alone: a ready-made community of beneficial bacteria from a screened healthy donor is introduced into it.
The clinic's own guide puts it this way: what is transplanted is not individual bacteria but a whole community together with the environment it lives in. Like moving a tree with its soil rather than a single branch.
This Is Not Surgery
The preparation is taken by mouth — capsules, oil drops or granules. No anaesthesia, no colonoscopy, no hospital stay. The patient spends most of the course at home.
What Happens in the Gut
The clinic's guide describes four mechanisms through which the method works.
Beneficial bacteria crowd out harmful ones
The introduced bifidobacteria and lactobacilli take up the space and the food that disease-causing microbes such as C. difficile depend on. The harmful bacteria are left with nowhere to grow.
Metabolism is restored
The bacteria start producing short-chain fatty acids again — the fuel for the cells of the gut wall. Acidity levels out and inflammation subsides.
Immune response evens out
Levels of the substances that sustain inflammation go down — the guideline names TNF-α and IL-6. Anti-inflammatory pathways switch on and the immune system stops overreacting.
The gut wall is repaired
The junctions between the cells of the gut wall are strengthened and it becomes less permeable. Fewer toxins pass from the gut into the bloodstream — this is what is meant by a "leaky gut".
What Is Proven and What Is Still Under Research
For different conditions the method sits at different stages of evidence. We separate them honestly, because they are not the same thing.
C. difficile infection
The one indication where the method is recommended by clinical guidelines and recognised worldwide, including in the USA and Europe. In the analysis of 15,000 cases, 85.8% of 684 patients improved.
Bowel conditions
Chronic constipation, diarrhoea, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease. Here the method is applied under Chinese clinical consensus documents. For chronic constipation, a review of nine studies covering 245 patients found improvement in 64.8% and lasting remission in about half.
Nervous system and metabolism
Autism spectrum disorders, Parkinson's disease, depression, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, support during cancer immunotherapy. Here the method is still being studied: there are Chinese expert consensus documents, including the 2025 consensus on autism, and accumulated clinical data — but these indications do not yet have international recognition.
An important caveat from the document every patient signs: the method has no single agreed criteria for assessing the result. Among people with the same diagnosis, the timing and degree of improvement differ.
What the Method Does Not Do
The clinic says this itself, and we think it is right to say it before you make a decision.
There is no guarantee of a result
The clinic states plainly that it cannot guarantee an effect in every patient, or that symptoms will not return. How a particular body will respond cannot be known in advance.
Autism is not cured
In a mild form a child may end up differing little from peers after treatment. In moderate and severe forms this is about improving speech and the ability to interact — not about a cure.
Therapy sessions continue
A transplant does not replace work with a speech therapist or a special-needs teacher. On the contrary: sessions usually give a more visible result afterwards, so they are continued.
The effect is not permanent
Transplanted microbiota holds for anywhere from a month to several years, depending on diet, lifestyle and medication. After six to twelve months a follow-up test decides whether a consolidating course is needed.
Who It Suits and Who It Does Not
When it is considered
Bowel conditions, metabolic disorders, selected conditions of the nervous system and mental health, support during cancer immunotherapy. The full list with evidence levels is on the conditions page.
When it is not performed
There are conditions where the clinic must refuse or postpone the procedure. Among them: congenital or acquired immunodeficiency, severe immunosuppression, an active infection outside the gut requiring antibiotics, severe damage to the gut lining, bowel obstruction, pregnancy and breastfeeding, and marked underweight.
The reason for the strictness is straightforward: live bacteria are introduced into the gut, and for someone with a suppressed immune system that can do harm. This is why fresh blood tests are required before starting.
Specifically about children with autism
A child is accepted if autism is confirmed and there are no other neurological conditions — epilepsy, cerebral palsy, tics, or chromosomal and genetic abnormalities. There must also be no severe bowel disease requiring urgent treatment, no history of severe allergy, and no marked underweight.
Detailed criteria in the questions and answers →Forms of the Preparation
Microbiota is taken by mouth — this is not surgery. The preparation is made by Jialan, the clinic's partner: its own microbiota testing laboratory in Hangzhou and a donor bank. There are three forms — all carry the same live material; only the way it is taken differs.
Capsules
Swallowed whole
live bacteria per capsule
Activity retention of at least 75%. The enteric coating shields the bacteria from stomach acid. Swallowed whole with warm water.
Oil Drops
Given with a dropper
live bacteria per ml
Dispensed straight into the mouth or added to warm milk or juice — nothing to swallow. The dose can be adjusted for age and weight. Taken in the morning on an empty stomach, undiluted.
Microcapsules
Dry granules
granule size, triple coating
Granules the size of a grain of rice with an acid-resistant coating: they pass through the stomach without dissolving and release the bacteria in the intestine. Also available as an oil suspension.
Which form to prescribe is decided by the doctor at the consultation — based on age, gut condition, and how easily the patient swallows. For small children, in autism, and where swallowing is difficult, drops or granules are usually more practical; for those who swallow confidently, capsules.
Where the Material Comes From
Donors are children, adolescents and young adults, usually aged 3 to 30 — among them university students and a youth football team. Young donors typically carry a higher share of beneficial bacteria than adults. What decides is not age itself but the composition of a given person’s microbiota — an older donor can be accepted too.
Screening is strict: 251 parameters are tested, ruling out infections, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and parasites, with lifestyle and absence of harmful habits also assessed. About 2.4% of candidates pass, and accepted donors are re-tested every eight weeks.
More on donor screening →How the Preparation Is Made
From collection to the finished form — a closed process with no exposure to air.
Processed within 6 hours
All work with the donor material is completed within the first six hours after collection. Isolating the microbiota itself takes about 25 minutes — the faster it goes, the more bacteria stay alive.
No exposure to air
Production runs in a fully closed, oxygen-free loop: most beneficial gut bacteria die on contact with air. The stated viability after processing is over 90%.
Freezing and cold chain
The finished preparation is frozen and shipped in dry ice. At home it is kept in a freezer at around minus twenty degrees for no longer than thirty days; a thawed preparation must not be refrozen.
How Treatment Works
A full course takes one to two months. The patient spends most of that time at home, staying in touch with the clinic's physician. For a lasting result several courses are usually recommended — this is discussed with the doctor.
Testing and Plan
The patient fills in health questionnaires and provides a stool sample. The laboratory in Hangzhou runs 16S rRNA sequencing of the gut microbiota; the report takes about 5–7 business days. Based on the results the doctor draws up an individual plan.
Cleansing — 3–4 days
Gentle preparation of the gut: a light diet and a mild cleansing agent. For children the regimen is adjusted by age. The purpose is to make room for the new bacteria.
Colonization — about a week
Microbiota in the morning on an empty stomach, one vial a day, a six-day course. A probiotic and dietary fibre are taken daily alongside it to feed the new bacteria. After the dose: light activity, food an hour or two later.
Maintenance — 1–2 months
A calm phase at home: probiotic, dietary fibre and a gentle diet help the new microflora settle in. The length depends on the chosen package. Sometimes the doctor schedules a repeat transplant for better consolidation.
Risks and Safety
What happens in the first days
A temporary reaction is possible: bloating, gas, a change in stool, weakness and a slight fever. This usually lasts one to three days and resolves on its own. What should raise concern is the opposite — things getting worse: high fever, a rash, symptoms building day by day. In that case, contact the doctor straight away.
What the research says
The largest safety study appeared in Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology in 2022: 8,547 patients, followed from two weeks to five years. Both short-term and long-term safety were rated good; conditions arising over long follow-up occurred no more often than in the general population.
Do not attempt this on your own
Donor material is sold online with no screening — a direct route to transmitting an infection. The US regulator has issued a warning about cases of infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria following such procedures; the Chinese 2022 consensus names this as one of the reasons a single donor-screening standard was needed. The whole point of the procedure is control at every step.
The Method's Official Status
In China
The method is listed in the national technical standards for medical services under its own code and classified as a new medical technology of low to moderate risk. More than twenty provinces have set official tariffs for it. Clinical practice rests on some twenty-five expert consensus documents and guidelines.
Worldwide
Outside China the method rests on the European consensus on the clinical application of faecal microbiota transplantation (2017) and the international consensus on stool banking (2019) — the same documents the clinic’s own guideline cites. Those documents are cautiously worded: for recurrent C. difficile infection the method is recommended by clinical guidelines, while for every other indication it remains a developing direction rather than an established standard.
Want to know whether this suits you
Tell us about your situation — a doctor will review the questionnaire and say plainly whether this method makes sense in your case. The initial assessment is free and commits you to nothing.