Study of brain gut axis and behavioural response of zebrafish danio rerio Hamilton to dietary administration of prebiotic Arthrospira platensis and probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum

Abstract

The present study was performed to investigate the stress resilience boosting role of prebiotic Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina), probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum and a combination of both i.e., synbiotic, by supplementing these in the diet of early developing life stages of zebrafish and studied their shielding effect against chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) in adult stage using behaviour assay, gut microbiota analysis, histological, ultrastructural and molecular study. The results of the present study indicated that in zebrafish given the supplemented diets, CUS did not induce anxiety-like behaviour, helped in myelin protection and upregulation of myelin-related genes which resulted in mitigating the effect of stress as compared to fish fed with a normal commercial fish diet. Based on the overall results of the current investigation, it can be concluded that early age supplementation of prebiotic, probiotic and synbiotic in food might act as a shield against subsequent stress at a later age. Their supplementation from the early growth stage may boost stress resilience and lessen the negative consequences of stress exposure at a later stage. newline