Department of Basic Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Key Laboratory of Precision Nutrition and Food Quality, Ministry of Education, Department of Nutrition and Health, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Aug 15;24(16):12822. doi: 10.3390/ijms241612822.
Chronic psychological stress affects the health of humans and animals (especially females or pregnant bodies). In this study, a stress-induced model was established by placing eight-week-old female and pregnant mice in centrifuge tubes for 4 h to determine whether chronic stress affects the intestinal mucosal barrier and microbiota composition of pregnant mice. Compared with the control group, we found that norepinephrine (NE), corticosterone (CORT), and estradiol (E) in plasma increased significantly in the stress group. We then observed a decreased down-regulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines and up-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which resulted in colonic mucosal injury, including a reduced number of goblet cells, proliferating cell nuclear antigen-positive cells, caspase-3, and expression of tight junction mRNA and protein. Moreover, the diversity and richness of the colonic microbiota decreased in pregnant mice. Bacteroidetes decreased, and pernicious bacteria were markedly increased. At last, we found E protects the intestinal epithelial cells after HO treatment. Results suggested that 25 pg/mL E provides better protection for intestinal barrier after chronic stress, which greatly affected the intestinal mucosal barrier and altered the colonic microbiota composition.
慢性心理应激会影响人类和动物的健康（尤其是女性或孕妇）。在这项研究中，通过将 8 周龄的雌性和怀孕的老鼠放入离心管中 4 小时，建立了一个应激诱导模型，以确定慢性应激是否会影响怀孕老鼠的肠道黏膜屏障和微生物群落组成。与对照组相比，我们发现应激组血浆中的去甲肾上腺素（NE）、皮质酮（CORT）和雌二醇（E）显著增加。然后我们观察到抗炎细胞因子的下调和促炎细胞因子的上调减少，这导致结肠黏膜损伤，包括杯状细胞数量减少、增殖细胞核抗原阳性细胞减少、半胱氨酸天冬氨酸蛋白酶-3（caspase-3）增加以及紧密连接的 mRNA 和蛋白表达减少。此外，怀孕老鼠的结肠微生物群落多样性和丰富度降低。拟杆菌门减少，有害细菌明显增加。最后，我们发现 E 在 HO 处理后对肠道上皮细胞具有保护作用。结果表明，25 pg/mL 的 E 在慢性应激后对肠道屏障提供了更好的保护，这极大地影响了肠道黏膜屏障并改变了结肠微生物群落组成。
