Gut microbiota and hypothalamic function
In previous studies, our team examined gut microbiota of healthy individuals and depressed patients using fecal microbiota transplantation of germ-free (GF) mice. Our results showed that depression-like and anxiety-like behavioral phenotypes of hostmice were increased, but the molecular mechanism by which gut microbiota regulate host behavioral phenotypes is still unclear.To investigate the molecular mechanism by which gut microbiota regulate host brain function, adult GF mice were colonized withfecal samples derived from healthy control (HC) individuals or patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Transcriptomic profiling of hypothalamus samples was performed to detect differentially expressed genes (DEGs). qRT-PCR was selected forvalidation experiment.