Altered fecal microbiota composition in aggressor-exposed rodent model simulating features of post-traumatic stress disorder

Rodent models are valuable tools to study the effects of microbiota on health and disease. The gut microbiota plays a crucial role in the bi-directional gut–brain axis, a communication that integrates the gut and central nervous system activities. Our laboratory has demonstrated repeated exposure of mice to a trained aggressor mouse as a model for aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder. This model was adapted from “social stress” model of traumatic stress, that uses a "cage-within-cage resident-intruder" protocol where subject mice are exposed to aggressor mice and where gut microbiota -derived metabolites were identified in plasma samples from social stressed mice after 10day of exposure. We were therefore interested in assessing the16S ribosomal RNA gene from fecal samples collected daily from control and aggressor-exposed mice during a 10-day study.