A preliminary study of gut microbiome variation and HPA axis reactivity in healthy infants
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The Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis regulates hormonal responses to stress in both humans and animals and is dysregulated in a wide range of psychiatric disorders. There is strong evidence from rodent studies that gut microbial composition influences HPA axis development. In humans, variation in the gut microbiome has been associated with several psychological domains including depression and cognitive development, but studies focused on HPA axis development are still lacking. We tested whether differences in microbial composition are associated with HPA axis reactivity in a pilot study of 34 healthy human infants. HPA axis reactivity was assessed by measuring salivary cortisol in samples taken both before and after a heel stick, and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was used for identification and relative quantification of bacterial taxa. Subjects' alpha diversity levels showed a moderate positive association with their cortisol reactivity at one month of age. Exploratory genus-level analyses suggest that Staphylococcus, Prevotella, and genera in the order Lachnospiraceae may be related to cortisol reactivity at one month as well. The current study gives support for the endocrine pathway as a potential mediator in the microbiome-gut-brain axis during infancy, and as such provides motivation for future clinical work to support the development of stress-response systems through the manipulation of gut microbes.
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In a pilot study of 34 healthy infants, gut microbiota composition at one month (measured as alpha diversity) was positively associated with HPA axis reactivity following a painful stressor.
“Although there remains a dearth of evidence from human studies, a recent pilot study of 34 healthy infants found that GM composition at one month (measured as alpha diversity) was positively associated with HPA axis reactivity following a painful stressor (369).”
From Signalling cognition: The gut microbiota and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (2023) · cites this paper as [369]
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- Authors
- Rosin, S., Xia, K., Azcarate-Peril, M. A., Carlson, A. L., Propper, C. B., Thompson, A. L., Grewen, K., & Knickmeyer, R. C.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Knickmeyer, Rebecca C.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-02
- Volume
- 124
- Pages
- 105046
- ISSN
- 0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8121098
- OpenAlex
- W3098230396
- Cited by
- 74
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 1.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychoneuroendocrinology (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (submittedVersion)
- UNC Libraries
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (T32 NS007432, T32 1T32MH106440-01, T32 GM008719, P30 DK34987, R21 MH104330)
- National Science Foundation (DGE-1650116)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
- Keywords
- gut microbiota, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cortisol response, infants, microbiome-gut-brain axis, salivary cortisol, stress response, microbial diversity, Staphylococcus, Prevotella, Lachnospiraceae
- MeSH terms
- Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Hydrocortisone, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Pilot Projects, Pituitary-Adrenal System, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Stress, Psychological
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