Date of Award:

8-2026

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences

Committee Chair(s)

Korry J. Hintze

Committee

Korry J. Hintze

Committee

Robert E. Ward

Committee

Taylor S. Oberg

Abstract

The Total Western Diet (TWD), a rodent diet designed to model the typical American dietary pattern, has been shown to worsen inflammation and colitis severity in mice. Psychological stress has also been associated with increased intestinal inflammation, barrier dysfunction, and alterations to the gut microbiome. The goal of this study was to determine whether combining the TWD with psychological stress would further worsen colitis severity and alter the gut microbiome. To investigate this, mice were fed either a healthy control diet or the TWD and exposed to psychological stress using a social disruption stress model. Colitis was induced using established chemical methods, and measures of intestinal inflammation, tissue injury, and gut microbiome composition were assessed.

Consistent with previous findings, mice fed the TWD showed substantially greater colitis severity, including increased colon shortening, mucosal injury, and intestinal inflammation compared with control-fed mice. Contrary to our hypothesis, however, psychological stress did not significantly worsen overall disease activity or broadly alter gut microbial diversity. Psychological stress did produce modest effects on colon shortening and epithelial regeneration, but these effects were relatively small compared with the strong inflammatory effects produced by the TWD. These findings suggest that the TWD creates a strong pro-inflammatory environment during experimental colitis that may overshadow additional effects of psychological stress on disease severity and gut microbiome composition.

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .