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. 2021 Jan-Dec:17:17448069211022952.
doi: 10.1177/17448069211022952.

A role for gut microbiota in early-life stress-induced widespread muscle pain in the adult rat

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A role for gut microbiota in early-life stress-induced widespread muscle pain in the adult rat

Paul G Green et al. Mol Pain. 2021 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Adult rats that experienced neonatal limited bedding (NLB), a form of early-life stress, experience persistent muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. Since there is a growing recognition that the gut microbiome regulates pain and nociception, and that early-life stress produces a long-lasting impact on the gut microbiome, we tested the hypothesis that persistent muscle hyperalgesia seen in adult NLB rats could be ameliorated by interventions that modify the gut microbiome. Adult NLB rats received probiotics, either Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (10 billion CFU/150 ml) or De Simone Formulation (DSF) (112.5 billion CFU/150 ml mixture of 8 bacterial species), in their drinking water, or non-absorbable antibiotics, rifaximin or neomycin, admixed with cookie dough, to provide 50 mg/kg. Mechanical nociceptive threshold in the gastrocnemius muscle was evaluated before and at several time points after administration of probiotics or antibiotics. Adult NLB rats fed probiotics L. Rhamnosus or DSF, antibiotics, as well as rats fed non-absorbable antibiotics rifaximin or neomycin, had markedly attenuated muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. We hypothesize that persistent skeletal muscle hyperalgesia produced by NLB stress may be, at least in part, due to a contribution of the gut microbiome, and that modulation of gut microbiome using probiotics or non-absorbable antibiotics, may be novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Keywords: Neonatal limited bedding; antibiotics; microbiome; myalgia; nociceptors; probiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Probiotics DSF and L. Rhamnosus reverse NLB-induced muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. Adult NLB rats received tap water (vehicle), or tap water containing DSF (112.5 billion CFU/150 ml) or L. Rhamnosus (10 billion CFU/150 ml). NLB rats were hyperalgesic (dashed lines indicate muscle mechanical nociceptive threshold in rats raised on standard bedding) prior to probiotics. While rats receiving tap water showed no change in nociceptive threshold, both probiotics significantly increased nociceptive threshold in males (2- way ANOVA, interaction F8,132 = 21.67, P 
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Antibiotics, rifaximin and neomycin, attenuate NLB-induced muscle mechanical hyperalgesia. Adult NLB rats were fed 4 g cookie dough (vehicle), or cookie dough containing rifaximin (50 mg/kg in 4 g cookie dough) or neomycin sulfate (50 mg/kg in 4 g cookie dough). The muscle mechanical nociceptive threshold of NLB rats was lower (i.e., they were hyperalgesic) compared to rats raised on standard bedding (threshold indicated by dashed lines) prior to antibiotic feeding. While rats receiving vehicle (cookie dough) showed no change in nociceptive threshold, both antibiotics significantly increased nociceptive threshold (2-way ANOVA, Time x Antibiotic treatment interaction F16,171 = 5.78, P 

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