Effects of chronic allergic lung inflammation on gut microbiota and depression-like behavior in mice

Sep 30, 2026

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The study investigates how chronic allergic lung inflammation may contribute to depression-like behavior through gut-brain signaling. Wild-type C57BL/6J female mice were exposed intranasally to house dust mite antigen or PBS for six weeks to induce a chronic asthma-like condition. Depression-like behavior was evaluated with sucrose preference testing, while fecal microbiota were profiled using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Significant shifts in gut β-diversity were observed in the HDM group, with specific taxa differing between groups, and bacterial abundance correlated with behavioral outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Aim

Methods

Animal model and treatments

Behavioral testing

Microbiota profiling and statistics

Results

Conclusions

Keywords

Introduction

Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript | | HHS Public Access
Author manuscript
Explor Asthma Allergy. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2026 January 09. | | --- | --- | Published in final edited form as: Explor Asthma Allergy. 2025 ; 3: . doi:10.37349/eaa.2025.100978 . Effects of chronic allergic lung inflammation on gut microbiota and depression-like behavior in mice Akihiro Kanaya 1,2 , Elvedin Luković 1 , Charles Emala 1 , Maya Mikami 1,* 1 Department of Anesthesiology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, United States 2 Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8575, Japan Abstract Aim: Emerging epidemiological studies have reported a link between allergic diseases, including asthma, and depression. Evidently, the gut microbiota is involved in the pathogenesis of asthma and depression. Therefore, we investigated whether allergic lung inflammation in mice causes gut microbial dysbiosis, via the gut-brain axis, which is potentially associated with depression. Methods: Wild-type C57BL/6J female mice were sensitized with intranasal house dust mite (HDM) antigen or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for 6 weeks to induce chronic allergic lung inflammation. Sucrose preference tests were performed for assessing depression. Fecal samples were collected, and 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was performed to detect differences in gut microbiota composition between the HDM and PBS groups. The distance calculation, clustering of operational taxonomic units, rarefaction analysis, and estimator calculation (α -and β-diversity) were performed. Results: There was a significant difference in β-diversity (Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, F-statistics = 6.16, p = 0.001) of the gut microbiota between HDM and PBS groups. However, there was no difference in the α-diversity. We observed multiple differentially abundant bacteria in the HDM This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ([https://creativecommons.org/](https://creativecommons.org/)[ ](https://creativecommons.org/)[licenses/by/4.0/](licenses/by/4.0/)), which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. *Correspondence: Maya Mikami, Department of Anesthesiology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, [United States. mm2545@cumc.columbia.edu](United States. mm2545@cumc.columbia.edu). Author contributions AK: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. EL: Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing. CE: Supervision, Writing—review & editing, Funding acquisition. MM: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. All authors read and approved the submitted version. Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Ethical approval All animal studies were approved by the Columbia University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (AABL 0559) . Consent to participate Not applicable. Consent to publication Not applicable. Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Kanaya et al. Page 2 and PBS groups. The order class Clostridia (p = 0.0036) and genus Faecalibaculum (p = 0.028) were more abundant in the HDM group, whereas the phylum Firmicutes (p = 0.037) and genera Dubosiella (p = 0.00024) and Turicibacter (p = 0.037) were more abundant in the PBS group. Notably, the relative abundance of some bacteria was correlated with the

FAQs

What hypothesis does the study test about allergic lung inflammation?

It tests whether allergic lung inflammation in mice causes gut microbial dysbiosis via the gut-brain axis, potentially associated with depression-like behavior.

How were depression-like behaviors measured in the mice?

Depression-like behavior was assessed using sucrose preference tests after six weeks of intranasal treatment.

What microbiota changes were detected between the HDM and PBS groups?

The study found a significant difference in gut β-diversity between groups, with differences in specific taxa and correlations between some bacterial abundances and sucrose preference results.

Sep 30, 2026

Upload by jay