Prenatal psychological stress mediates vertical transmission of gut microbiome to the next generation affecting offspring depressive-like behaviors and neurotransmitter

作者：Yuexuan Liu, Junlin Hou, Zhaoyao Qi, Liping Yang, Zhixin Du, Yongye Wu, Qi Song, Xiaobing Li, Jianhua Sun, Ping Chen, Xutao Guan, Lingling Li · 发表于：BMC Psychology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s40359-025-03088-y · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Gut microbiota and health、Tryptophan and brain disorders、Stress Responses and Cortisol

OBJECTIVE: Prenatal stress has been proven to be associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota. Despite the established phenomenon that psychological stress can be transmitted to offspring and the ability of maternal gut microbiota to colonize the offspring's gut through vertical transmission, the intricate relationships linking cross-generational depression with the microbiome remain poorly understood. METHODS: We utilized combined fear stress stimuli to establish a pregnancy psychological stress (PPS) rat model, in which offspring exhibited trans-generational depression-like behavior. The relationship between vertical transmission of the gut microbiome, intergenerational effects, and psychological stress in offspring was investigated using microbiology and metabolomics. RESULTS: We demonstrated that the vertical transmission of co-altered species from PPS dams to their puberty offspring was strongly associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in the offspring. In terms of microbial function, both PPS dams and their offspring exhibited upregulation of glycine, glutamate, and serine metabolism in fecal samples, as revealed by untargeted metabolomics. Additionally, this microbial trans-generational effect was reflected in the prefrontal cortical tissue of PPS offspring, where serine in the pathway and its interconverted glycine was significantly increased. Furthermore, the co-altered species and metabolites of the pathway formed a highly correlated module with disordered...