Gut microbiome promotes mice recovery from stress-induced depression by rescuing hippocampal neurogenesis

Studies from rodents to primates and humans indicate that individuals vary in how resilient they are to stress, and understanding the basis of these variations may help improve treatments for depression. Here we explored the potential contribution of the gut microbiome to such variation. Mice were exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) for 4 weeks then allowed to recover for 3 weeks, after which they were subjected to behavioral tests and categorized as showing low or high stress resilience. The two types of mouse were compared in terms of hippocampal gene expression using RNA sequencing, fecal microbiomes using 16S RNA sequencing, and extent of neurogenesis in the hippocampus using immunostaining of brain sections. Fecal microbiota were transplanted from either type of mouse into previously stress-exposed and stress-naïve animals, and the effects of the transplantation on stress-induced behaviors and neurogenesis in the hippocampus were examined. Finally, we blocked neurogenesis using temozolomide to explore the role of neurogenesis promoted by fecal microbiota transplantation in enhancing resilience to stress. Results showed that highly stress-resilient mice, but not those with low resilience, improved significantly on measures of anhedonia, behavioral despair, and anxiety after 3-week recovery from CUMS. Their feces showed greater abundance of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Romboutsia than feces from mice with low stress resilience, as well as lower abundance of Staphylococcus, Psychrobacter and Corynebacterium. Similarly, highly stress-resilient mice showed greater neurogenesis in hippocampus than animals with low stress resilience. Transplanting fecal microbiota from mice with high stress resilience into previously CUMS-exposed recipients rescued neurogenesis in hippocampus, facilitating recovery from stress-induced depression and cognitive decline. Blockade of neurogenesis with temozolomide abolished recovery of recipients from CUMS-induced depression and cognitive decline in mice transplanted with fecal microbiota from mice with high stress resilience. In conclusion, our results suggested that remodeling of the gut microbiome after stress may reverse stress-induced impairment of hippocampal neurogenesis and thereby promote recovery from stress-induced depression.