Abstract
BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of post-stroke depression (PSD) remains largely unknown. There is growing evidence indicating that gut microbiota participates in the development of brain diseases through the gut-brain axis. Here, we aim to determine whether and how microbial composition and function altered among control, stroke and PSD rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After the PSD rat model was successfully established, gut microbiome combined with fecal metabolome approach were performed to identify potentially PSD-related gut microbes and their functional metabolites. Then, correlations between behavior indices and altered gut microbes, as well as correlations between altered gut microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with differential metabolites in PSD rats were explored. Enrichment analysis was also conducted to uncover the crucial metabolic pathways related to PSD. RESULTS: Although there were some alterations in the microbiome and metabolism of the control and stroke rats, we found that the microbial and metabolic phenotypes of PSD rats were significantly different. The microbial composition of PSD showed a decreased species richness indices, characterized by 22 depleted OTUs mainly belonging to phylum Firmicutes, genus Blautia and Streptococcus. In addition, PSD was associated with disturbances of fecal metabolomics, among them Glutamate, Maleic acid, 5-Methyluridine, Gallocatechin, 1,5-Anhydroglucitol, L-Kynurenine, Daidzein, Cyanoalanine, Acetyl Alanine and 5-Methoxytryptamine were significantly related to disturbed gut microbiome (P ≤ 0.01). Disordered fecal metabolomics in PSD rats mainly assigned to lipid, amino acid, carbohydrate and nucleotide metabolism. The steroid biosynthesis was particularly enriched in PSD. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that gut microbiome may participate in the development of PSD, the mechanism may be related to the regulation of lipid metabolism.