Fig. 3

Orally gavage of CSS alleviated restraint stress (RS)-induced colitis and gut dysbiosis in mice. Effects on RS-induced colon shortening (A), myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity (B), TNF-α (C), and IL-6 expression (D), and NF-κB activation (p-p65 to p65 ratio) (E) in the colon. Effects on the composition of gut microbiota: phylum (F), γ-Proteobacteria level (G), α-diversity (Shannon index) (H), β-diversity (principal coordinate analysis [PCoA] plot, H) based on weighted pairwise Fast UniFrac analysis (I), and Cladogram (J). Cladogram was generated by LEfSE indicating significant differences in gut microbial abundances among normal control (NC, blue), RS-treated (RS, red), buspirone-treated (PC, purple), and CSS-treated (CS1.0, green) groups. Yellow nodes represent species with no significant difference. The threshold logarithmic score set at 3.5 in the family level and ranked. Test agents (RS, vehicle [saline]; PC, (1 mg/kg/day of buspirone, i.p; CS_1.0, 1 g/kg/day of CSS) were treated daily for 5 days from the next day after the final exposure to restraint stress (RS). Normal control mice (NC) was orally treated with vehicle (saline) instead of test agents. Data values were indicated as mean ± SD (n = 6). ^#p < 0.05 vs. NC group. ^*p < 0.05 vs. RS group