We have shown previously that prebiotic (Bimuno galacto-oligosacharides, B-GOS®) administration to neonatal rats increased hippocampal NMDAR proteins. The present study has investigated the effects of postnatal B-GOS® supplementation on hippocampus-dependent behavior in young, adolescent, and adult rats and applied electrophysiological, metabolomic and metagenomic analyses to explore potential underlying mechanisms. The administration of B-GOS® to suckling, but not post-weaned, rats reduced anxious behavior until adulthood. Neonatal prebiotic intake also reduced the fast decay component of hippocampal NMDAR currents, altered age-specific trajectories of the brain, intestinal, and liver metabolomes, and reduced abundance of fecal Enterococcus and Dorea bacteria. Our data are the first to show that prebiotic administration to rats during a specific postnatal period has long-term effects on behavior and hippocampal physiology. The study also suggests that early-life prebiotic intake may affect host brain function through the reduction of stress-related gut bacteria rather than increasing the proliferation of beneficial microbes.

我们之前已经证明，给新生大鼠施用益生元（Bimino 半乳寡糖，B-GOS®）会增加海马 NMDAR 蛋白。本研究调查了出生后补充 B-GOS® 对幼年、青少年和成年大鼠海马依赖性行为的影响，并应用电生理学、代谢组学和宏基因组学分析来探索潜在的潜在机制。对哺乳期大鼠（而非断奶后大鼠）施用 B-GOS® 可以减少成年之前的焦虑行为。新生儿益生元的摄入还减少了海马 NMDAR 电流的快速衰减成分，改变了大脑、肠道和肝脏代谢组的年龄特异性轨迹，并减少了粪便肠球菌和Dorea细菌的丰度。我们的数据首次表明，在特定的产后时期对大鼠施用益生元对行为和海马生理机能具有长期影响。该研究还表明，生命早期摄入益生元可能通过减少与压力相关的肠道细菌而不是增加有益微生物的增殖来影响宿主的大脑功能。