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Maternal separation in rodents: a journey from gut to brain and nutritional perspectives

Marion Rincel¹, Muriel Darnaudéry¹

¹Univ. Bordeaux, INRA, Bordeaux INP, NutriNeuro, UMR 1286, F-33000, Bordeaux, France.

The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society

|June 29, 2019

Insights

Early life stress, like maternal separation, can harm the gut-brain axis. Probiotics and prebiotics show promise in protecting against these long-term effects.

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Gastroenterology
Microbiology

Background:

Early-life adversity increases the risk of psychiatric and gastrointestinal disorders.
The gut-brain axis is crucial for stress-related emotional behaviors.
Maternal separation (MS) in rodents models early-life adversity, causing lasting gut and brain effects.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the effects of maternal separation on the gut and brain.
To explore the role of gut microbiota in mediating long-term effects of MS.
To discuss gut-directed interventions for mitigating early-life stress impacts.

Main Methods:

Review of preclinical studies on maternal separation in rodents.
Analysis of research on gut-directed interventions, including prebiotics and probiotics.
Focus on stress-related behaviors and gut-brain axis interactions.

Main Results:

Maternal separation induces lasting negative effects on both the gut and brain.
Gut microbiota plays a significant role in mediating the long-term consequences of early-life stress.
Nutritional interventions with pro- and prebiotics show potential in mitigating these effects.

Conclusions:

Preclinical studies suggest pro- and prebiotic nutrition can safely and effectively reduce early-life stress impacts on the gut-brain axis.
Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms of gut-brain interactions after early-life stress.
Understanding these mechanisms will help determine the benefits of gut-directed strategies in humans exposed to early adversity.

Read full analysis

Abstract:

The developmental period constitutes a critical window of sensitivity to stress. Indeed, early-life adversity increases the risk to develop psychiatric diseases, but also gastrointestinal disorders such as the irritable bowel syndrome at adulthood. In the past decade, there has been huge interest in the gut-brain axis, especially as regards stress-related emotional behaviours. Animal models of early-life adversity, in particular, maternal separation (MS) in rodents, demonstrate lasting deleterious effects on both the gut and the brain. Here, we review the effects of MS on both systems with a focus on stress-related behaviours. In addition, we discuss more recent findings showing the impact of gut-directed interventions, including nutrition with pre- and probiotics, illustrating the role played by gut microbiota in mediating the long-term effects of MS. Overall, preclinical studies suggest that nutritional approaches with pro- and prebiotics may constitute safe and efficient strategies to attenuate the effects of early-life stress on the gut-brain axis. Further research is required to understand the complex mechanisms underlying gut-brain interaction dysfunctions after early-life stress as well as to determine the beneficial impact of gut-directed strategies in a context of early-life adversity in human subjects.

Keywords:

Gut microbiota Intestinal permeability Prebiotics Probiotics

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