Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

The effect of psychological stress on the gastrointestinal microbiota is widely recognized. Chronic psychological stress may be associated with increased disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease, but the relationships among psychological stress, the gastrointestinal microbiota, and the severit...

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Main Authors: Yohei Watanabe, Sohei Arase, Noriko Nagaoka, Mitsuhisa Kawai, Satoshi Matsumoto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4780833?pdf=render
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author Yohei Watanabe
Sohei Arase
Noriko Nagaoka
Mitsuhisa Kawai
Satoshi Matsumoto
author_facet Yohei Watanabe
Sohei Arase
Noriko Nagaoka
Mitsuhisa Kawai
Satoshi Matsumoto
author_sort Yohei Watanabe
collection DOAJ
description The effect of psychological stress on the gastrointestinal microbiota is widely recognized. Chronic psychological stress may be associated with increased disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease, but the relationships among psychological stress, the gastrointestinal microbiota, and the severity of colitis is not yet fully understood. Here, we examined the impact of 12-week repeated water-avoidance stress on the microbiota of two inbred strains of T cell receptor alpha chain gene knockout mouse (background, BALB/c and C57BL/6) by means of next-generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. In both mouse strains, knockout of the T cell receptor alpha chain gene caused a loss of gastrointestinal microbial diversity and stability. Chronic exposure to repeated water-avoidance stress markedly altered the composition of the colonic microbiota of C57BL/6 mice, but not of BALB/c mice. In C57BL/6 mice, the relative abundance of genus Clostridium, some members of which produce the toxin phospholipase C, was increased, which was weakly positively associated with colitis severity, suggesting that expansion of specific populations of indigenous pathogens may be involved in the exacerbation of colitis. However, we also found that colitis was not exacerbated in mice with a relatively diverse microbiota even if their colonic microbiota contained an expanded phospholipase C-producing Clostridium population. Exposure to chronic stress also altered the concentration of free immunoglobulin A in colonic contents, which may be related to both the loss of bacterial diversity in the colonic microbiota and the severity of the colitis exacerbation. Together, these results suggest that long-term exposure to psychological stress induces dysbiosis in the immunodeficient mouse in a strain-specific manner and also that alteration of microbial diversity, which may be related to an altered pattern of immunoglobulin secretion in the gastrointestinal tract, might play a crucial role in the development of chronic stress-induced colitis.
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spelling doaj.art-fe2e5f7c72d242c393aa0bd123a362552022-12-22T00:08:13ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01113e015055910.1371/journal.pone.0150559Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.Yohei WatanabeSohei AraseNoriko NagaokaMitsuhisa KawaiSatoshi MatsumotoThe effect of psychological stress on the gastrointestinal microbiota is widely recognized. Chronic psychological stress may be associated with increased disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease, but the relationships among psychological stress, the gastrointestinal microbiota, and the severity of colitis is not yet fully understood. Here, we examined the impact of 12-week repeated water-avoidance stress on the microbiota of two inbred strains of T cell receptor alpha chain gene knockout mouse (background, BALB/c and C57BL/6) by means of next-generation sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes. In both mouse strains, knockout of the T cell receptor alpha chain gene caused a loss of gastrointestinal microbial diversity and stability. Chronic exposure to repeated water-avoidance stress markedly altered the composition of the colonic microbiota of C57BL/6 mice, but not of BALB/c mice. In C57BL/6 mice, the relative abundance of genus Clostridium, some members of which produce the toxin phospholipase C, was increased, which was weakly positively associated with colitis severity, suggesting that expansion of specific populations of indigenous pathogens may be involved in the exacerbation of colitis. However, we also found that colitis was not exacerbated in mice with a relatively diverse microbiota even if their colonic microbiota contained an expanded phospholipase C-producing Clostridium population. Exposure to chronic stress also altered the concentration of free immunoglobulin A in colonic contents, which may be related to both the loss of bacterial diversity in the colonic microbiota and the severity of the colitis exacerbation. Together, these results suggest that long-term exposure to psychological stress induces dysbiosis in the immunodeficient mouse in a strain-specific manner and also that alteration of microbial diversity, which may be related to an altered pattern of immunoglobulin secretion in the gastrointestinal tract, might play a crucial role in the development of chronic stress-induced colitis.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4780833?pdf=render
spellingShingle Yohei Watanabe
Sohei Arase
Noriko Nagaoka
Mitsuhisa Kawai
Satoshi Matsumoto
Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
PLoS ONE
title Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
title_full Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
title_fullStr Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
title_full_unstemmed Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
title_short Chronic Psychological Stress Disrupted the Composition of the Murine Colonic Microbiota and Accelerated a Murine Model of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
title_sort chronic psychological stress disrupted the composition of the murine colonic microbiota and accelerated a murine model of inflammatory bowel disease
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4780833?pdf=render
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