The gut microbiota as a target to improve health conditions in a confined environment

Abstract

Confined environments increase psychological stress and lead to health problems such as abnormal mood and rhythm disruption. However, the mechanism by which confined environments impact health has remained unclear. Significant correlations have been reported between psychological stress and changes in gut microbiota. Therefore, we investigated the effect of a confined environment on the composition of the gut microbiota by 16s rDNA high-throughput sequencing, and analyzed the correlation between gut microbiota and health indicators such as uric acid (UA), sleep, and mood. We found that the gut microbiota of the subjects clustered into two enterotypes (Bi and Bla), and that the groups differed significantly. There were notable differences in the abundances of genera such as Bifidobacterium, Dorea, Ruminococcus_torques_group, Ruminococcus_gnavus_group, Klebsiella, and UCG-002 (p < 0.05). A confined environment significantly impacted the subjects’ health indicators. We also observed differences in how the subjects of the two enterotypes adapted to the confined environment. The Bi group showed no significant differences in health indicators before and after confinement; however, the Bla group experienced several health problems after confinement, such as increased UA, anxiety, and constipation, and lack of sleep. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that UA, RBC, mood, and other health problems were significantly correlated with the structure of the gut microbiota. We concluded that genera such as UCG-002, Ruminococcus, CAG352, and Ruminococcus_torques_group increased vulnerability to confined environments, resulting in abnormal health conditions. We found that the differences in the adaptability of individuals to confined environments were closely related to the composition of their gut microbiota.

A Cross Talking between the Gut Microbiota and Metabolites of Participants in a Confined Environment

“…Confined environments can cause constant psychological stress and thus significantly affect mood [ 36 ]. Sustained stress can also trigger the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis, which affects the gut microbiota by reducing the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Bacteroides [ 37 ].…”

Designing probiotic-containing fermented food to improve mental disorders derived from childhood emotional neglect

“…A systematic review comparing the GM taxa diversity in individuals with anxiety and or depression found that certain disorders are related to the abundance of proinflammatory taxa such as Enterobacteriaceae and Desulfovibrio (Simpson et al, 2021). Moreover, abundance in taxa such as UCG-002, Ruminococcus_torques_group, and Ruminococcus, were correlated to anxiety and depression symptoms in individuals that suffered stress in confined spaces, as a human anxiety model (Chen et al, 2022). These findings represent a great opportunity to explore new treatment pathways, such as fermented food containing probiotics or synbiotics to restore the GM eubiosis that may lead to alternative treatments for mental disorders.…”

Effects of isolation and confinement on gastrointestinal microbiota–a systematic review

“…After the confinement the taxa tended to reverse to their original state. By clustering the gut microbiota of subjects into two enterotypes, Chen et al ( 45 ) suggested that the composition of the gut microbiota is a crucial factor in the adaptability of individuals to antigen-limited environment exposure, as subjects showed either no significant differences in health indicators before and after confinement or experienced several health problems after confinement, such as increased uric acid, anxiety, and constipation, and lack of sleep. Similarly, another simulation experiment ( 46 ) reported mixed results: The data showed increased abundances of the genera Roseburia , Prevotella , Lachnospira , and Phascolarctobacterium , while abundances of the genera Faecalibacterium , Parabacteroides , Bacteroides , Bifidobacterium , and Anaerostipes dropped.…”