Fig. 4

Effects of prebiotics, probiotics, or synbiotics on brain mitochondrial function, hippocampal oxidative stress, and hippocampal apoptosis. a Whole brain isolated mitochondrial ROS production. b Hippocampal ROS production. c Percent change of whole brain isolated mitochondrial depolarization when incubated with hydrogen peroxide. d Upper panel: representative images of brain mitochondrial morphology. Lower panel: whole brain isolated mitochondrial absorbance value. e Upper panel: representative immunoblotting images of Bax relative to actin expression. Lower panel: the expression of hippocampal Bax protein relative to actin. f Upper panel: representative immunoblotting images of Bcl-2 relative to actin expression. Lower panel: the expression of hippocampal Bcl-2 protein relative to actin. ND: 24-week-normal diet-fed rats; HFD: 24-week high fat-fed rats; V: rats receiving PBS as vehicle; PE: rats receiving prebiotics; PO: rats receiving probiotics; C: rats receiving combination of prebiotics and probiotics as synbiotics (N = 6 of each group) *p < 0.05 in comparison with the ND-fed rats; †p < 0.05 in comparison with the HFD-fed rats receiving vehicle