The effects of a probiotic formulation (Lactobacillus rhamnosus and L. helveticus) on developmental trajectories of emotional learning in stressed infant rats.

Cowan, Caitlin S. M.; Callaghan, Bridget L.; Richardson, Rick

The effects of a probiotic formulation (Lactobacillus rhamnosus and L. helveticus) on developmental trajectories of emotional learning in stressed infant rats.

dc.contributor.author	Cowan, Caitlin S. M.
dc.contributor.author	Callaghan, Bridget L.
dc.contributor.author	Richardson, Rick
dc.contributor.funder	Australian Research Council	en
dc.contributor.funder	Petre Foundation	en
dc.contributor.funder	University of New South Wales	en
dc.contributor.funder	National Health and Medical Research Council	en
dc.date.accessioned	2019-02-06T15:32:55Z
dc.date.available	2019-02-06T15:32:55Z
dc.date.issued	2016-05-31
dc.date.updated	2019-02-05T16:57:58Z
dc.description.abstract	Recently, scientific interest in the brain-gut axis has grown dramatically, particularly with respect to the link between gastrointestinal and psychiatric dysfunction. However, the role of gut function in early emotional dysregulation is yet to be examined, despite the prevalence and treatment resistance of early-onset psychiatric disorders. The present studies utilized a developmental rodent model of early-life stress (ELS) to explore this gap. Rats were exposed to maternal separation (MS) on postnatal days 2-14. Throughout MS, dams received either vehicle or a probiotic formulation (previously shown to reduce gastrointestinal dysfunction) in their drinking water. Replicating past research, untreated MS infants exhibited an adult-like profile of long-lasting fear memories and fear relapse following extinction. In contrast, probiotic-exposed MS infants exhibited age-appropriate infantile amnesia and resistance to relapse. These effects were not mediated by changes in pups' or dams' anxiety at the time of training, nor by maternal responsiveness. Overall, probiotics acted as an effective and non-invasive treatment to restore normal developmental trajectories of emotion-related behaviors in infant rats exposed to ELS. These results provide promising initial evidence for this novel approach to reduce the risk of mental health problems in vulnerable individuals. Future studies are needed to test this treatment in humans exposed to ELS and to elucidate mechanisms for the observed behavioral changes.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Petre Foundation (Petre Foundation Scholarship); National Health and Medical Research Council ((APP1031688); NHMRC Early Career Fellowship)); University of New South Wales (UNSW Research Excellence Award)	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Published Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Cowan, C. S. M., Callaghan, B. L. and Richardson, R. (2016) 'The effects of a probiotic formulation (Lactobacillus rhamnosus and L. helveticus) on developmental trajectories of emotional learning in stressed infant rats', Translational Psychiatry, 6, e823 (8 pp). doi: 10.1038/tp.2016.94	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1038/tp.2016.94
dc.identifier.endpage	9	en
dc.identifier.issn	2158-3188
dc.identifier.issued	5	en
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Translational Psychiatry	en
dc.identifier.startpage	1	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/7457
dc.identifier.volume	6	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Springer Nature	en
dc.relation.project	info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ARC/Discovery Projects/DP120104925/AU/Effects of early life trauma on fear memory and fear extinction in rats/	en
dc.relation.uri	https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201694
dc.rights	© 2016 the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Brain-gut axis	en
dc.subject	Gut function	en
dc.subject	Maternal separation	en
dc.subject	Probiotic agent	en
dc.title	The effects of a probiotic formulation (Lactobacillus rhamnosus and L. helveticus) on developmental trajectories of emotional learning in stressed infant rats.	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en