Administration of Lactobacillus helveticus NS8 improves behavioral, cognitive, and biochemical aberrations caused by chronic restraint stress

Publication date: 3 December 2015 Source:Neuroscience, Volume 310 Author(s): S. Liang, T. Wang, X. Hu, J. Luo, W. Li, X. Wu, Y. Duan, F. Jin Increasing numbers of studies have suggested that the gut microbiota is involved in the pathophysiology of stress-related disorders. Chronic stress can cause behavioral, cognitive, biochemical, and gut microbiota aberrations. Gut bacteria can communicate with the host through the microbiota–gut–brain axis (which mainly includes the immune, neuroendocrine, and neural pathways) to influence brain and behavior. It is hypothesized that administration of probiotics can improve chronic-stress-induced depression. In order to examine this hypothesis, the chronic restraint stress depression model was established in this study. Adult specific pathogen free (SPF) Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to 21days of restraint stress followed by behavioral testing (including the sucrose preference test (SPT), elevated-plus maze test, open-field test (OFT), object recognition test (ORT), and object placement test (OPT)) and biochemical analysis. Supplemental Lactobacillus helveticus NS8 was provided every day during stress until the end of experiment, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram (CIT) served as a positive control. Results showed that L. helveticus NS8 improved chronic restraint stress-induced behavioral (anxiety and depression) and cognitive dysfunction, showing an effect similar to and better than...
Source: Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research