Early Gut Microbiota Perturbations Following Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis to Prevent Group B Streptococcal Disease

PLoS One. 2016 Jun 22;11(6):e0157527. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157527. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The faecal microbiota composition of infants born to mothers receiving intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis with ampicillin against group B Streptococcus was compared with that of control infants, at day 7 and 30 of life. Recruited newborns were both exclusive breastfed and mixed fed, in order to also study the effect of dietary factors on the microbiota composition. Massive parallel sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene and qPCR analysis were performed. Antibiotic prophylaxis caused the most marked changes on the microbiota in breastfed infants, mainly resulting in a higher relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae, compared with control infants (52% vs. 14%, p = 0.044) and mixed-fed infants (52% vs. 16%, p = 0.13 NS) at day 7 and in a lower bacterial diversity compared to mixed-fed infants and controls. Bifidobacteria were also particularly vulnerable and abundances were reduced in breastfed (p = 0.001) and mixed-fed antibiotic treated groups compared to non-treated groups. Reductions in bifidobacteria in antibiotic treated infants were also confirmed by qPCR. By day 30, the bifidobacterial population recovered and abundances significantly increased in both breastfed (p = 0.025) and mixed-fed (p = 0.013) antibiotic treated groups, whereas Enterobacteriaceae abundances remained highest in the breastfed antibiotic treated group (44%), compared with control infants (16%) and mixed-fed antibiotic treated group (28%). This study has therefore demonstrated the short term consequences of maternal intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis on the infant faecal microbial population, particularly in that of breastfed infants.

MeSH terms

  • Antibiotic Prophylaxis*
  • Biodiversity
  • Breast Feeding
  • Colony Count, Microbial
  • Diet
  • Feces / microbiology
  • Female
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome*
  • Humans
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Phylogeny
  • Principal Component Analysis
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Streptococcal Infections / drug therapy*
  • Streptococcal Infections / microbiology
  • Streptococcal Infections / prevention & control*
  • Streptococcus agalactiae / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was part funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture Food and Marine INFANTMET Project (RefNo 10FDairy), Science Foundation of Ireland–funded Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology, the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre and by EU FP7 MyNewGut project (No.:613979; www.mynewgut.eu). The research activity of GM and KM were supported by the Global Grant Spinner project 2013 and a Teagasc Walsh Fellowship, respectively.