Bifidobacterium in the gut microbiota confer resilience to chronic social defeat stress in mice

Accumulating evidence suggests that abnormalities in the composition of the gut microbiota may play a role in the pathogenesis of depression. Although approximately 30% mice are resilient to chronic social defeat stress (CSDS), the role of gut microbiota in this stress resilience is unknown. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to a different CD1 aggressor mouse for 10 min on 10 consecutive days. A social interaction test was applied to distinguish between resilient and susceptible mice. Using 16S rRNA analysis, we examined the composition of gut microbiota in feces from control, resilient, and susceptible mice. The marked appearance of Bifidobacterium was detected in the resilient mice, whereas in the control and susceptible mice, Bifidobacterium were below the detection limit. Oral intake of Bifidobacterium significantly increased the number of resilient mice after CSDS compared with vehicle-treated mice. These findings suggest that Bifidobacterium may confer resilience to CSDS. Therefore, supplementation of Bifidobacterium may prevent the onset of depression from stress in humans. In addition, supplementation of Bifidobacterium may prevent or minimize relapse from remission induced by inflammation and/or stress in depressed patients.