| Summary: | Patients with preoperative stress are prone to postoperative emotional deficits. However, the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we characterize the changes of microbial composition and specific metabolites after anesthesia/surgery in rats with preoperative stress based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and non-targeted metabolomics technique. Consequently, we found that anesthesia/surgery aggravated anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors in rats under preoperative stress. Microglia were activated and pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor ɑ (TNF-α) were upregulated after anesthesia/surgery. The postoperative gut microbiota and metabolite composition of rats exposed to preoperative stress differed from those of control rats. Lastly, emotional impairments, metabolic alterations, and neuroinflammation returned normal in antibiotics-treated rats. Our findings provide further evidence that abnormalities in the gut microbiota contribute to postoperative metabolic restructuring, neuroinflammation, and psychiatric deficits in rats under preoperative stress.
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