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Papers of the Week


Papers: 14 Nov 2020 - 20 Nov 2020

RESEARCH TYPE:
Psychology


Human Studies


2020 Oct 20


Cell Rep Med


1


7

A Potential Role for Stress-Induced Microbial Alterations in IgA-Associated Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Diarrhea.

Authors

Rengarajan S, Knoop KA, Rengarajan A, Chai JN, Grajales-Reyes JG, Samineni VK, Russler-Germain EV, Ranganathan P, Fasano A, Sayuk GS, Gereau RW, Kau AL, Knights D, Kashyap PC, Ciorba MA, Newberry RD, Hsieh C-S
Cell Rep Med. 2020 Oct 20; 1(7).
PMID: 33196055.

Abstract

Stress is a known trigger for flares of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); however, this process is not well understood. Here, we find that restraint stress in mice leads to signs of diarrhea, fecal dysbiosis, and a barrier defect via the opening of goblet-cell associated passages. Notably, stress increases host immunity to gut bacteria as assessed by immunoglobulin A (IgA)-bound gut bacteria. Stress-induced microbial changes are necessary and sufficient to elicit these effects. Moreover, similar to mice, many diarrhea-predominant IBS (IBS-D) patients from two cohorts display increased antibacterial immunity as assessed by IgA-bound fecal bacteria. This antibacterial IgA response in IBS-D correlates with somatic symptom severity and was distinct from healthy controls or IBD patients. These findings suggest that stress may play an important role in patients with IgA-associated IBS-D by disrupting the intestinal microbial community that alters gastrointestinal function and host immunity to commensal bacteria.