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Alteration of the gut microbiome and correlated metabolism in a rat model of long-term depression

Yubo Li, Junling Li, Ran Cheng, Hai-Xia Liu, Yu-Kun Zhao, Yanjun Liu, Yan-Jing Chen, Zhibo Sun et al.

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 2023

32 citations

Abstract

Objective This study aims to investigate the composition and function of the gut microbiome in long-term depression using an 8-week chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) rat model. Materials and methods Animals were sacrificed after either 4 weeks or 8 weeks under CUMS to mimic long-term depression in humans. The gut microbiome was analyzed to identify potential depression-related gut microbes, and the fecal metabolome was analyzed to detect their functional metabolites. The correlations between altered gut microbes and metabolites in the long-term depression rats were explored. The crucial metabolic pathways related to long-term depression were uncovered through enrichment analysis based on these gut microbes and metabolites. Results The microbial composition of long-term depression (8-week CUMS) showed decreased species richness indices and different profiles compared with the control group and the 4-week CUMS group, characterized by disturbance of Alistipes indistinctus, Bacteroides ovatus, and Alistipes senegalensis at the species level. Additionally, long-term depression was associated with disturbances in fecal metabolomics. D-pinitol was the only increased metabolite in the 8-week CUMS group among the top 10 differential metabolites, while the top 3 decreased metabolites in the long-term depression rats included indoxyl sulfate, trimethylaminen-oxide, and 3 alpha,7 alpha-dihydroxy-12-oxocholanoic acid. The disordered fecal metabolomics in the long-term depression…

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