Got stress? LABs to the rescue!
What's New Monday: New research documents Lactic Acid Bacteria help your body deal with stress.
On Mondays, we share a short set of quotes from “Microbes In The News.” Today, we found a new article about a study documenting the effects of the probiotic bacterium, Lactic Acid Bacteria (LABs), and their ability to help alleviate stress in mice. This shows promise since we all have stress, some days more than others. LABs are found in most fermented foods and probiotics, making them easy to get.
What are your favorite fermented foods?
Dysbiosis has often been identified in patients under stress or with mood disorders, especially with respect to LB [Lactic Acid Bacteria]. Moreover, in both human and animal studies, this organism has been found to improve the individual’s mood and relieve anxiety while enhancing resistance to stress.
The Altered Schaedler Flora (ASF) refers to a gnotobiotic consortium or set of bacteria in which all members are well-known. Established in 1978, ASF includes 8 bacterial strains that have been vertically transmitted. It includes two LB strains, which were removed in the current study, thus producing some mice lacking LB from birth (ASF(-L) vs the other ASF(+L) mice that received the whole ASF consortium.
Using these mice, they ran tests without the reactions of the other microbes that are normally in the gut.
Below are the stress factors used:
One set of mice was exposed to two hours of restraint daily at unpredictable times. In addition, one other stressor was used: damp bedding, a tilted cage, or being forced to shift cages twice within 24 hours. These exposures continued for three weeks, after which their behavioral responses to chronic restraint stress were tested.
Overall, exposure to gut microbiota from stressed animals resulted in lower type 1 immune markers, particularly IFNγ. … Moreover, mice lacking LB were more prone to develop stress after restraint and showed lower numbers of Type 1 helper T cells (Th1 cells). Neuronal activation was higher in stressed ASF(-L) mice than in ASF(+L) mice.
The researchers observed that ASF(-L) mice showed anxiety- and depression-like behaviors when exposed to subclinical stress. The absence of LB appears to be linked to increased susceptibility to stress. … ASF(-L) mice had lower serum IFNγ than ASF(+L) mice. Only ASF(+L) mice showed a reduction in IFNγ after stress, suggesting that this may mediate psychological resilience when faced with environmental stressors. Since ASF(-L) mice do not have sufficiently high levels of IFNγ, their capacity to be resilient is low.
This study helps identify a connection to the gut as our second brain. The lactic acid bacteria can produce various metabolites, including serotonin, that reduce stress.
Source: Thomas, Liji. Gut microbe Lactobacillus found to bolster stress resilience, new study reveals. Dec. 3, 2023. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20231203/Gut-microbe-Lactobacillus-found-to-bolster-stress-resilience-new-study-reveals.aspx