Specific class of intrapartum antibiotics relates to maturation of the infant gut microbiota: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the potential impact of intrapartum antibiotics, and their specific classes, on the infant gut microbiota in the first year of life. Design Prospective study of infants in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS). Settings Rural New Hampshire, USA. Population or sample Two hundred and sixty-six full-term infants from the NHBCS. Methods Intrapartum antibiotic use during labour and delivery was abstracted from medical records. Faecal samples collected at 6 weeks and 1 year of age were characterised by 16S rRNA sequencing, and metagenomics analysis in a subset of samples. Exposures Maternal exposure to antibiotics during labour and delivery. Main outcome measure Taxonomic and functional profiles of faecal samples. Results Infant exposure to intrapartum antibiotics, particularly to two or more antibiotic classes, was independently associated with lower microbial diversity scores as well as a unique bacterial community at 6 weeks (GUnifrac, P = 0.02). At 1 year, infants in the penicillin-only group had significantly lower α diversity scores than infants not exposed to intrapartum antibiotics. Within the first year of life, intrapartum exposure to penicillins was related to a significantly lower increase in several taxa including Bacteroides, use of cephalosporins was associated with a significantly lower rise over time in Bifidobacterium and infants in the multi-class group experienced a significantly higher increase in Veillonella dispar. Conclusions Our findings suggest that intrapartum antibiotics alter the developmental trajectory of the infant gut microbiome, and specific antibiotic types may impact community composition, diversity and keystone immune training taxa.

The Infant Gut Resistome is Associated with E. coli and Early-life Exposures

“…Resistomic and taxonomic composition are intrinsically intertwined, but the extent to which early-life factors shape the resistome via infant gut microbial composition has not been established. Variation to ecological successional patterns of microbiome assembly has been observed by our group and others in association with gestational age [13], delivery mode [15,20,23], feeding mode [23,24], intrapartum antibiotic exposure [13,19,20,[25][26][27][28], geographic diversity [29,30], and antibiotic usage [11,12,29,31]. As ARGs can be passed horizontally between bacteria through mobile genetic elements or vertically within the infant gut [11,12,19] and differential infant characteristics impact the trajectory of microbial composition [12,15,32], taxonomic composition is an important factor to consider in context to resistome development.…”

Prospective associations of the infant gut microbiome and microbial function with social behaviors related to autism at age 3 years

“…Established protocols were followed for 16S rRNA gene sequencing and data processing (Supplementary Methods) [67][68][69][70][71][72] . A subset of DNA samples (from 6-week and 1-year stools) also underwent metagenomic sequencing at Marine Biological Laboratory as previously described (Supplementary Methods) [73][74][75] . www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Assessment of social behaviors.…”

Intestinal Stem Cell Development in the Neonatal Gut: Pathways Regulating Development and Relevance to Necrotizing Enterocolitis

“…Microbial assembly in the preterm infants is affected by several prenatal factors including maternal diet, presence of intraamniotic infection, and mode of delivery (vaginal vs. cesarean section) [ 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 ]. After birth, the major determinants of gut microbial assembly included type of feeding, i.e., formula feeding vs. breast milk, use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and the neonatal intensive care environment and practices [ 84 , 88 , 89 , 90 ]. Importantly, in comparison with term infants, the preterm infant has decreased diversity, with relative enrichment of Enterobacteria , and decreases in Bacteroides and Bifidobacteria [ 73 , 85 , 91 , 92 ].…”