Altering the intestinal microbiota during a critical developmental window has lasting metabolic consequences.

Publication Type Academic Article
Authors Cox L, Yamanishi S, Sohn J, Alekseyenko A, Leung J, Cho I, Kim S, Li H, Gao Z, Mahana D, Zárate Rodriguez J, Rogers A, Robine N, Loke P, Blaser M
Journal Cell
Volume 158
Issue 4
Pagination 705-721
Date Published 08/14/2014
ISSN 1097-4172
Keywords Anti-Bacterial Agents, Disease Models, Animal, Intestines, Microbiota, Obesity, Penicillins
Abstract Acquisition of the intestinal microbiota begins at birth, and a stable microbial community develops from a succession of key organisms. Disruption of the microbiota during maturation by low-dose antibiotic exposure can alter host metabolism and adiposity. We now show that low-dose penicillin (LDP), delivered from birth, induces metabolic alterations and affects ileal expression of genes involved in immunity. LDP that is limited to early life transiently perturbs the microbiota, which is sufficient to induce sustained effects on body composition, indicating that microbiota interactions in infancy may be critical determinants of long-term host metabolic effects. In addition, LDP enhances the effect of high-fat diet induced obesity. The growth promotion phenotype is transferrable to germ-free hosts by LDP-selected microbiota, showing that the altered microbiota, not antibiotics per se, play a causal role. These studies characterize important variables in early-life microbe-host metabolic interaction and identify several taxa consistently linked with metabolic alterations. PAPERCLIP:
DOI 10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.052
PubMed ID 25126780
PubMed Central ID PMC4134513
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