Association of prenatal antibiotics with measures of infant adiposity and the gut microbiomeOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers examined whether prenatal antibiotic exposure was linked to infant adiposity and gut microbiome composition, using the Nurture birth cohort (454 mother infant pairs recruited 2013 to 2015 in Durham, North Carolina).
How was it studied?
Antibiotic exposure was captured by timing, number of courses, and type, then linked to infant weight-for-length z score (WFL-z) and skinfold thicknesses at 12 months. A subsample of infants (68 at 3 months, 50 at 12 months) had stool analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing to assess gut microbial composition.
What did they find?
Any prenatal antibiotic exposure was linked to a 0.21 higher WFL-z at 12 months, with a dose-dependent trend (P for trend = 0.006) up to 0.41 higher WFL-z for 3 or more courses. After adjusting for delivery method, only second-trimester exposure remained associated with higher WFL-z (0.27) and greater subscapular skinfold thickness (0.49 mm). Second-trimester exposure was also linked to differing abundance of 13 bacterial amplicon sequence variants at 3 months and 17 at 12 months.
Why it matters
The findings suggest the second trimester may be a sensitive window where antibiotics could simultaneously reshape the infant gut microbiome and influence early adiposity, though the authors call for larger cohorts to confirm the link.