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Effects of prebiotic galacto-oligosaccharide on postoperative cognitive dysfunction and neuroinflammation through targeting of the gut-brain axis
This 2018 study focused on determining prebiotics’ potential effects on immunity and cognition because prebiotics affect the gut microbiota (a key regulator of neurological inflammation) and that the neuroinflammation induced by surgery is influential in postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). The researchers therefore designed an experiment where adult rats undergoing abdominal surgery were fed with water or prebiotic Bimuno® (galactooligosaccharide (B-GOS) mixture) for 3 weeks. The aim of the research was to check if this prebiotic could ameliorate postoperative cognitive dysfunction and reduce surgery-induced neuroinflammation. Three days after surgery, the rats showed signs of impairment in novel objective recognition compared with rats in the control condition. There was also a notable increase in inflammatory markers in the hippocampus of these rats post-surgery, with elevated expression of activated microglia and increased levels of interleukins evident. But the administration of the prebiotic mixture B-GOS reduced cognitive decline significantly. Following treatment with B-GOS, activation of microglia and expressions of M1-related genes and interleukin-6 levels dropped considerably. There were still some microglial markers and interleukin-4 levels that did not differ significantly between the surgical and B-GOS groups. But the prebiotic treatment group was found to have experienced a significant change in diversity of the gut microbiome and proliferation of Bifidobacterium and other potentially anti-inflammatory microbes. This study concluded that administration of prebiotic B-GOS has a positive effect on neuroinflammatory and cognitive impairment in a rat model of abdominal surgery. [NPID: cognition, inflammation, surgery, prebiotic, supplement, gut microbiota, gut-brain axis, Bimuno, B-GOS, galactooligosaccharide]
Year: 2018
