Antibiotics in Early Life Alter the Murine Colonic Microbiome and Adiposity

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2012 Aug 24

PMID 22914093

Citations 751

Authors

Ilseung Cho

Shingo Yamanishi

Laura Cox

Barbara A Methe

Jiri Zavadil

Kelvin Li

Zhan Gao

Douglas Mahana

Kartik Raju

Isabel Teitler

Huilin Li

Alexander V Alekseyenko

Martin J Blaser

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Antibiotics administered in low doses have been widely used as growth promoters in the agricultural industry since the 1950s, yet the mechanisms for this effect are unclear. Because antimicrobial agents of different classes and varying activity are effective across several vertebrate species, we proposed that such subtherapeutic administration alters the population structure of the gut microbiome as well as its metabolic capabilities. We generated a model of adiposity by giving subtherapeutic antibiotic therapy to young mice and evaluated changes in the composition and capabilities of the gut microbiome. Administration of subtherapeutic antibiotic therapy increased adiposity in young mice and increased hormone levels related to metabolism. We observed substantial taxonomic changes in the microbiome, changes in copies of key genes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates to short-chain fatty acids, increases in colonic short-chain fatty acid levels, and alterations in the regulation of hepatic metabolism of lipids and cholesterol. In this model, we demonstrate the alteration of early-life murine metabolic homeostasis through antibiotic manipulation.

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