New study: Antibiotic use in newborns is linked to stunting in boys

BEIJING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua Sun Selffa) Springer Nature's academic journal Nature-Communication recently published a microbiology research paper that said that the first few weeks of life antibiotic exposure is related to the boy's low height and weight before the age of 6, but there is no such relationship among girls. The study suggests that this effect may come from developmental changes in the gut microbiome.
the paper, there have been studies that have reported that giving antibiotics to newborns in the first few weeks of life can lead to changes in the composition of the gut microbiome. However, the long-term effects of this exposure are unclear.
paper's co-authors, Omry Koren of the University of Zefatbaylan in Israel, and Samuli Rautava of the University of Helsinki and the University Hospital of Helsinki in Finland, used a team of 12,422 children born in Turku, Finland, between 2008 and 2010 to study the relationship between antibiotic exposure during the neonatal period (within 14 days of birth) and pre-six-year-olds. Using growth curve-based score statistics, they found that boys (not girls) who had been exposed to antibiotics in their newborns were underweight before the age of six compared to children in the sample who had not been exposed to antibiotics during the neonatal period. Antibiotic use was associated with high body mass index in both boys and girls, from the end of neonatal time until the age of six.
in another set of experiments, the authors transplanted the fecal microbiome of babies without antibiotic exposure into sterile mice. In male mice transplanted from the infant microbiome 1 month and 24 months after antibiotic use, the researchers observed stunting. No changes were observed in female mice.
exposure to antibiotics may be linked to long-term changes in gut microbes, which may lead to stunting in boys up to the age of six, according to the authors. However, they caution against the limitations of the study, such as a inadequate understanding of the specific effects of the initial use of antibiotics, which may affect height and weight development early in life, suggesting that caution is needed to interpret the results. (Complete)