Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that abnormalities in the composition of the gut microbiota may play a role in the pathogenesis of depression. Although approximately 30% mice are resilient to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), the role of gut microbiota in this stress resilience is unknown. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to a different CD1 aggressor mouse for 10 min on 10 consecutive days. A social interaction test was applied to distinguish between resilient and susceptible mice. Using 16S rRNA analysis, we examined the composition of gut microbiota in feces from control, resilient, and susceptible mice. The marked appearance of Bifidobacterium was detected in the resilient mice, whereas in the control and susceptible mice, Bifidobacterium were below the detection limit. Oral intake of Bifidobacterium significantly increased the number of resilient mice after CSDS compared with vehicle-treated mice. These findings suggest that Bifidobacterium may confer resilience to CSDS. Therefore, supplementation of Bifidobacterium may prevent the onset of depression from stress in humans. In addition, supplementation of Bifidobacterium may prevent or minimize relapse from remission induced by inflammation and/or stress in depressed patients.
Highlights
Accumulating evidence suggests that abnormalities in the composition of the gut microbiota may play a role in the pathogenesis of depression
We previously reported that neurological processes, including, glutamatergic and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) ergic neurotransmissions, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, dendritic spine density, peripheral interleukin-6 (IL-6), Keap1-Nrf[2] system, and soluble epoxide hydrolase, may confer stress resilience in learned helplessness and chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) models[19,20,21,22,23,24]
The major findings of this study are as follows: First, stress resilience after CSDS may be associated with the emergence of Bifidobacterium in the host gut
Summary
Accumulating evidence suggests that abnormalities in the composition of the gut microbiota may play a role in the pathogenesis of depression. Approximately 30% mice are resilient to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), the role of gut microbiota in this stress resilience is unknown. Using 16S rRNA analysis, we examined the composition of gut microbiota in feces from control, resilient, and susceptible mice. Oral intake of Bifidobacterium significantly increased the number of resilient mice after CSDS compared with vehicletreated mice. Supplementation of Bifidobacterium may prevent the onset of depression from stress in humans. The present study was undertaken to examine whether the composition of gut microbiota in the feces of resilient and susceptible mice after CSDS is altered. We examined whether oral intake of Bifidobacterium could elicit a beneficial effect in the facilitation of stress resilience
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