Table 2. Summary of studies on gut microbiota and BDNF

Subjects Treatments Effects Reference
Wistar rat Lactiplantibacillus plantarum • BDNF ▲ in brain and gut (Ranuh et al., 2019)
Stress-induced depression mice model Lactiplantibacillus plantarum • BDNF ▲ in hippocampus• Depression-like behavior ▼ (Choi et al., 2019)
Celiac disease (CD) rat model Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG • BDNF ▲ and TrkB ▼ in brain (Orlando et al., 2020)
CORT-induced depression rat model Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus TF318 • BDNF ▲ in hippocampusFirmicutes ▲ in microbiota• Depression-like behavior ▼ (Zhao et al., 2023)
C57BL/6 mice Lactobacillus gasseri NK109 • BDNF ▲ in hippocampus• LPS-induced cognitive impairment behavior ▼ (Yun et al., 2023)
GF BALB/c mice Fecal microbiota transplantation of SPF BALB/c mice or Bifidobacterium infantis treatment • BDNF ▲ in hippocampus and cerebral cortex (Sudo et al., 2004)
GF BALB/c mice Fecal microbiota transplantation of Swiss mice • Exploratory behavior ▲• BDNF ▲ in hippocampus• Hesitancy ▼ in step-down test (Bercik et al., 2011)
C57BL/6J mice Cocktail of antibiotics (vancomycin, neomycin, metronidazole, ampicillin) • Microbiota dysbiosis• BDNF ▼ and TrkB ▼ in hippocampus (Bistoletti et al., 2019)
BDNF gene knock-out mice - • Microbiota dysbiosis• Intestinal mucosal barrier (IMB) function ▼ (Li et al., 2018)
>=18 years adults (meta-analysis) Probiotic supplementation • BDNF ▲ in serum• Significant effect beyond 10 weeks treatment• Stronger effect in participants with cognitive impairment or mental disease or gastrointestinal or neurodegenerative disease compared to healthy participants (Hashemi et al., 2025)