Maternal and postweaning probiotic administration alleviated footshock-induced anxiety in both sexes of adolescent Balb/c mice

Aim: Effects of maternal probiotics administered during pregnancy as well as consumption by offspring in the post-weaning period on anxiety behavior were examined.Methods: In addition to anxiety levels measured by EPM and OFT, the expression level of the hippocampal genes, and serum sex hormones in male and female mice that received foot shock stress were assayed in the pubertal period.Results: The results of this study showed that consumption of probiotics in the foot shock-stressed offspring in both sexes could significantly increase the length of stay in the EPM open arm compared to the control group, however, the offspring of the probiotic-treated dam did not. Consumption of probiotics by the pro-off group caused remarkable high expression of the 5HT2AC receptor gene. In the pro-off group, consumption of probiotics led to a significant decrease in 5HT1 receptor expression. Expression of GABRA2 was increased in probiotics-treated groups, thus the pro-off and the pro-dam group had a significant difference from the control group. Feeding offspring with probiotics by significantly increased progesterone concentrations compared to the control group, and maternal consumption of probiotics during pregnancy and lactation had no reducing effect on progesterone concentrations. This is due to electric shock stress. The consumption of probiotics by mice during infancy was shown to compensate for the decrease in progesterone concentration in them. Maternal use of probiotics during pregnancy and lactation did not affect this concentration.Conclusions: It is concluded that probiotics can protect against foot shock stress-induced anxiety, progesterone disturbance, and dysregulation of expression of some anxiety-related genes.