ArticleBMC psychology2025
Prenatal psychological stress mediates vertical transmission of gut microbiome to the next generation affecting offspring depressive-like behaviors and neurotransmitter.
Article in BMC psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Gut microbiota during pregnancy: a bibliometric analysis of global research trends and collaborative networks.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Mother-to-offspring microbial vertical transmission: timing, determinants, and impact on offspring susceptibility to gastrointestinal diseases.Medical review (2021) · 2026Review
- Biopsychosocial Influences on the Gut Microbiome in Women's Health: Moving Towards Eubiosis.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Maternal gut dysbiosis is associated with altered enteric and cortical inhibitory circuit development.Frontiers in neuroanatomy · 2026Article
- The maternal gut-fetal brain axis: role of maternal microbial metabolome in early neurodevelopment.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Gut Microbiota and Autism: Unlocking Connections.Nutrients · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePrenatal stress has been proven to be associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota. Despite the established phenomenon that psychological stress can be transmitted to offspring and the ability of maternal gut microbiota to colonize the offspring's gut through vertical transmission, the intricate relationships linking cross-generational depression with the microbiome remain poorly understood.
methodsWe utilized combined fear stress stimuli to establish a pregnancy psychological stress (PPS) rat model, in which offspring exhibited trans-generational depression-like behavior. The relationship between vertical transmission of the gut microbiome, intergenerational effects, and psychological stress in offspring was investigated using microbiology and metabolomics.
resultsWe demonstrated that the vertical transmission of co-altered species from PPS dams to their puberty offspring was strongly associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in the offspring. In terms of microbial function, both PPS dams and their offspring exhibited upregulation of glycine, glutamate, and serine metabolism in fecal samples, as revealed by untargeted metabolomics. Additionally, this microbial trans-generational effect was reflected in the prefrontal cortical tissue of PPS offspring, where serine in the pathway and its interconverted glycine was significantly increased. Furthermore, the co-altered species and metabolites of the pathway formed a highly correlated module with disordered inflammatory factors and neurotransmitters in the prefrontal cortex tissue of PPS offspring. This indicates that the microbiome plays a significant role in prefrontal cortex neuroinflammation as well as neurotransmitter disorders in depression-like offspring.
conclusionsOur findings highlight the gut microbiome as a plausible mediator of prenatal stress effects on offspring neurodevelopment, though further mechanistic validation is required.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.