Antibiotic use in childhood alters the gut microbiota and predisposes to overweight
Authors:Katri Korpela and Willem M de Vos
doi: 10.15698/mic2016.07.514
Volume 3, pp. 296 to 298, published 20/06/2016.
Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Immunobiology Research Program, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Keywords:
microbiota, antibiotics, obesity, asthma, bile salt hydrolase, amoxicillin, macrolide, child.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare that no competing interest exists.
Please cite this article as:
Katri Korpela and Willem M de Vos (2016). Antibiotic use in childhood alters the gut microbiota and predisposes to overweight. Microbial Cell3(7): 296-298. doi: 10.15698/mic2016.07.514
© 2016 Korpela and de Vos. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
A correlation between the use of antibiotics in early life and the excessive weight gain in later childhood has been shown in several large cohort studies all over the world. One hypothesis explaining this association is the pervasive impact that antibiotics may have on the intestinal microbiota, and this has been supported by recent mouse studies. Studies have shown dramatic changes in the intestinal microbiota of adults in response to oral antibiotic treatments. However, little is known about the impact of antibiotics on the intestinal microbiota of children, although antibiotics account for the majority of the medication prescribed to children in Western countries.