Figure 4.

B. adolescentis reversed the imbalance of the intestinal microflora induced by CRS at the genus level. The mice in the Con, CRS, and Bif+CRS groups were treated with 10 mL/kg distilled water, 10 mL/kg distilled water, and 0.25 × 10⁹ CFU/kg B. adolescentis, respectively, by gavage for 21 days. (A) An increased Shannon index was observed in the CRS group compared with the control group, and the increase in the index was attenuated by B. adolescentis. (B) PCA revealed that the microbial community composition in the B. adolescentis group was more similar to that in the control than that in the CRS group, as shown by the clustering of the samples in the plots. (C) Community barplot analysis is shown. (D) The decrease in the Lactobacillus abundance in the CRS group was increased by B. adolescentis. (E) The enhanced Bacteroides abundance in the CRS group was reversed by B. adolescentis. The data are shown as the mean ± SEM. One-way ANOVA followed by the Student-Newman-Keuls test was used. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 vs. the control; ^#p < 0.05 and ^##p < 0.01 vs. the CRS group; n = 3 per group. Con, Control; CRS, chronic restraint stress; Bif+CRS, B. adolescentis + chronic restraint stress.