Authors

Abildgaard, A, Kern, T, Pedersen, O, Hansen, T, Wegener, G, Lund, S

Year

2019

Journal

European Neuropsychopharmacology

Abstract

Numerous studies have been published describing the effect of various probiotics (PRO) on behaviours related to psychiatric disease. We have previously shown a robust antidepressant- like effect of PRO in rats, but over time, the treatment effect seems to vary significantly between different sets of rats from the same commercial vendor. Therefore, we hypothesised that the antidepressant-like response may be modulated by the cohabiting gut microbiota. The aims of the present study were (1) to investigate any differences in the gut microbiota composition between responders (Resp) and non-responders (Non-resp) to PRO with regards to depressive-like behaviour, and (2) to evaluate the effects of PRO on the microbiota composi- tion. Two sets of 20 male Sprague-Dawley rats each were treated with multi-species PRO (nine Bi- fidobacterium, Lactococcus and Lactobacillus species) for eight weeks and subjected to a be- havioural assessment. Faecal samples were collected for 16 s rRNA (VR4) gene amplicon se- quencing (Illumina MiSeq).