NEONATAL ANTIBIOTIC EXPOSURE: THE INFLUENCE ON THE GUT MICROBIOTA

The establishment and development of the bacterial population during early life have been found to be strongly affected by several factors such as delivery mode, diet and antibiotic exposure. Early life antibiotic exposure causes alterations in the gut microbiota and has also been reported to be associated with the risk of chronic disease including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), overweight, and asthma.

During recent years antibiotics administration has increased dramatically, and it has become the most commonly used drugs in pediatrics in western countries. The long-term impact of neonatal antibiotic exposure remains poorly understood.

The current study aim was to examine the impact of neonatal antibiotic administration on gut microbiota up to 24 months from the exposure time compared to control infants.

Bacterial populations from fecal samples of antibiotic treated and control infants has been analyzed using 16S rRNA and whole genome shotgun sequencing. In addition, we performed fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to germ-free mice from all experimental and control infants in order to further test the microbial changes and their impact on growth.

Our results show that penicillin and gentamicin had major effects on infant gut microbiota as long as 24 months after treatment with major impact on Bifidobacterium species. In addition, mice receiving FMT from antibiotic-exposed neonates exhibit long-term microbiota disturbances and gain less weight compared to mice receiving FMT from non-exposed infants. Our data indicate that neonatal antibiotic exposure elicits a long-term impact on gut microbiota development and may be associated with adverse effects on growth.