Fig. 6

Fecal transplantations of normal control and CSS/RS-treated mice alleviated restraint stress (RS)-induced colitis and gut dysbiosis in the transplanted 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), CSS/RS-treated mouse feces-transplanted (IFC, purple), and normal control mouse feces-transplanted (IFN) groups. Yellow nodes represent species with no significant difference. The threshold logarithmic score set at 3.5 in the family level and ranked. RS, IFC, and IFN groups were treated with vehicle (saline), fecal microbiota of CSS/RS-treated mice (FC), and fecal microbiota of normal control mice (FN) in mice with RS-induced depression daily for 5 days from 24 h after the exposure to RS, respectively. NC group was orally treated with vehicle (saline) in normal control mice instead of the fecal sample. Data values were indicated as mean ± SD (n = 6). ^#p < 0.05 vs. NC group. ^*p < 0.05 vs. RS group