Donovan Meghan, Mackey Calvin S, Lynch Michael D J, Platt Grayson N, Brown Amber N, Washburn Brian K, Trickey Darryl J, Curtis J Thomas, Liu Yan, Charles Trevor C, Wang Zuoxin, Jones Kathryn M
Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States.
Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, Aurora, CO, United States.
Front Microbiol. 2023 Feb 8;14:1015666. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1015666. eCollection 2023.
Research on the role of gut microbiota in behavior has grown dramatically. The probiotic can alter social and stress-related behaviors - yet, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Although traditional laboratory rodents provide a foundation for examining the role of on the gut-brain axis, they do not naturally display a wide variety of social behaviors. Using the highly-social, monogamous prairie vole (), we examined the effects of administration on behaviors, neurochemical marker expression, and gut-microbiome composition. Females, but not males, treated with live displayed lower levels of social affiliation compared to those treated with heat-killed . Overall, females displayed a lower level of anxiety-like behaviors than males. Live -treated females had lower expression of corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) and CRF type-2-receptor in the nucleus accumbens, and lower vasopressin 1a-receptor in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), but increased CRF in the PVN. There were both baseline sex differences and sex-by-treatment differences in gut microbiome composition. Live increased the abundance of several taxa, including , NK4A136, and . Interestingly, heat-killed increased abundance of the beneficial taxa and . There were significant correlations between changes in microbiota, brain neurochemical markers, and behaviors. Our data indicate that impacts gut microbiota, gut-brain axis and behaviors in a sex-specific manner in socially-monogamous prairie voles. This demonstrates the utility of the prairie vole model for further examining causal impacts of microbiome on brain and behavior.
关于肠道微生物群在行为中的作用的研究急剧增加。益生菌可以改变与社交和应激相关的行为——然而，其潜在机制在很大程度上仍然未知。尽管传统实验室啮齿动物为研究肠道微生物群对肠-脑轴的作用提供了基础，但它们并不会自然表现出多种多样的社交行为。利用高度社会化、实行一夫一妻制的草原田鼠，我们研究了给予益生菌对行为、神经化学标志物表达和肠道微生物群组成的影响。与用热灭活益生菌处理的雌性相比，用活益生菌处理的雌性表现出较低水平的社交依恋。总体而言，雌性表现出的焦虑样行为水平低于雄性。用活益生菌处理的雌性在伏隔核中促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子（CRF）和CRF 2型受体的表达较低，在下丘脑室旁核（PVN）中血管加压素1a受体较低，但PVN中的CRF增加。肠道微生物群组成存在基线性别差异和处理与性别的交互差异。活益生菌增加了包括[具体菌属1]、[具体菌属2]、NK4A136和[具体菌属3]在内的几种分类群的丰度。有趣的是，热灭活益生菌增加了有益分类群[具体菌属4]和[具体菌属5]的丰度。微生物群变化、脑神经化学标志物和行为之间存在显著相关性。我们的数据表明，益生菌以性别特异性方式影响实行一夫一妻制的草原田鼠的肠道微生物群、肠-脑轴和行为。这证明了草原田鼠模型在进一步研究微生物群对大脑和行为的因果影响方面的实用性。
