Aizawa Emiko, Tsuji Hirokazu, Asahara Takashi, Takahashi Takuya, Teraishi Toshiya, Yoshida Sumiko, Ota Miho, Koga Norie, Hattori Kotaro, Kunugi Hiroshi
Department of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Yakult Central Institute, Tokyo, Japan.
J Affect Disord. 2016 Sep 15;202:254-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2016.05.038. Epub 2016 May 24.
Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in the gut have been suggested to have a beneficial effect on stress response and depressive disorder. We examined whether these bacterial counts are reduced in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) than in healthy controls.
Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus counts in fecal samples were estimated in 43 patients and 57 controls using bacterial rRNA-targeted reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction
The patients had significantly lower Bifidobacterium counts (P=0.012) and tended to have lower Lactobacillus counts (P=0.067) than the controls. Individuals whose bacterial counts below the optimal cut-off point (9.53 and 6.49log10 cells/g for Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, respectively) were significantly more common in the patients than in the controls for both bacteria (Bifidobacterium: odds ratio 3.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.38-7.54, P=0.010; Lactobacillus: 2.57, 95% CI 1.14-5.78, P=0.027). Using the same cut-off points, we observed an association between the bacterial counts and Irritable bowel syndrome. Frequency of fermented milk consumption was associated with higher Bifidobacterium counts in the patients.
The findings should be interpreted with caution since effects of gender and diet were not fully taken into account in the analysis.
Our results provide direct evidence, for the first time, that individuals with lower Bifidobacterium and/or Lactobacillus counts are more common in patients with MDD compared to controls. Our findings provide new insight into the pathophysiology of MDD and will enhance future research on the use of pro- and prebiotics in the treatment of MDD.
肠道中的双歧杆菌和乳酸杆菌被认为对应激反应和抑郁症具有有益作用。我们研究了重度抑郁症（MDD）患者的这些细菌数量是否比健康对照者减少。
使用针对细菌rRNA的逆转录定量聚合酶链反应，对43例患者和57例对照者的粪便样本中的双歧杆菌和乳酸杆菌数量进行了估计。
与对照组相比，患者的双歧杆菌数量显著降低（P = 0.012），乳酸杆菌数量有降低趋势（P = 0.067）。两种细菌中，细菌数量低于最佳临界点（双歧杆菌和乳酸杆菌分别为9.53和6.49log10细胞/克）的个体在患者中比在对照组中明显更常见（双歧杆菌：优势比3.23，95%置信区间[CI] 1.38 - 7.54，P = 0.010；乳酸杆菌：2.57，95%CI 1.14 - 5.78，P = 0.027）。使用相同的临界点，我们观察到细菌数量与肠易激综合征之间存在关联。患者中食用发酵乳的频率与较高的双歧杆菌数量相关。
由于分析中未充分考虑性别和饮食的影响，这些发现应谨慎解释。
我们的结果首次提供了直接证据，表明与对照组相比，MDD患者中双歧杆菌和/或乳酸杆菌数量较低的个体更为常见。我们的发现为MDD的病理生理学提供了新的见解，并将加强未来关于使用益生菌和益生元治疗MDD的研究。
