Weaning is a critical developmental period that can be accompanied by gut microbial dysbiosis, intestinal inflammation, and stress-related behavioral alterations. In this mouse study, we evaluated whether fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) or fecal virome transplantation (FVT) derived from pre- and post-weaning piglets could differentially influence stress-related phenotypes after antibiotic pretreatment. Compared with FMT from post-weaning piglets (Post-FMT), FMT from pre-weaning piglets (Pre-FMT) was associated with higher open-arm time in the elevated plus maze and greater inner-zone exploration in the open field test. In post-FMT mice, subsequent FVT from pre-weaning piglets (Pre-FVT) was associated with higher open-arm time and inner-zone exploration than FVT from post-weaning piglets (Post-FVT). Pre-FVT was also associated with enrichment of several taxa linked to short-chain fatty acid production, including Muribaculaceae, Akkermansia, Bifidobacterium, and Butyricimonas. It was further associated with lower colonic expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine genes, higher expression of barrier-related genes, longer colon length, altered fecal metabolite profiles, and lower serum corticosterone concentrations. In brain tissues, Pre-FVT was associated with higher GABAR and BDNF transcript levels and lower CRHR1 transcript levels than Post-FVT. Collectively, these findings provide preliminary evidence that piglet-derived FVT may contribute to changes in microbiome- and gut-brain-axis-related readouts in mice under the conditions tested.
Choi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.