Effects of exercise and microbiota transplant on the memory of obesity-induced mice

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate the association between changes in the intestinal environment and the brain using a model that received aerobic exercise and microbiome transplantation. All mice were fed a diet containing 60% fat. For the obesity with nonexercise microbiome transplantation group, feces from donors that did not undergo exercise were administered. For the obesity with exercise microbiome trans-plantation group, feces from donors who underwent exercise were ad-ministered. Treadmill exercise started 16 weeks after the intake of the high fat feeding and continued for 24 weeks. The short-term memory and spatial learning memory were determined by step-down avoidance test and Morris water maze task, immunohistochemistry for glial fibril-lary acidic protein, western blot analysis for brain-derived neurotrophic factor and tropomyosin receptor kinase B were performed in the hippo-campus. Exercise was the most effective way to reduce obesity, im-prove memory function, suppress inflammation, and increase brain-de-rived neurotrophic factor expression. Intestinal microbiota transplanta-tion was the second most effective after exercise. However, there was no significant difference in the fecal microbiota transplant group ac-cording to whether or not exercise was performed.