Abstract:

The antibiotic administration could potentially to affects metabolism and physiology by altering the gut microbiota composition and diversity. As early life is a critical period for metabolic development, microbiota disruption during this window period could have a significant implication to the health status.  In humans, early-life microbiota disruption has been proven to be associated with increased risk of overweight later in childhood. As the use of cefixime is rising in pediatric clinical infections, it is important to determine the changes in gut microbiota composition after early-life exposure of this antibiotic. In this study, six-week old male Wistar rats were used as an animal model, divided equally into a control group and cefixime group. Both groups were transplanted orally with feces from 7-months old infant boy prior to antibiotic administration. Cefixime group was given cefixime orally twice a day for five days in 3 consecutive periods with one-week interval. Microbiome analysis from caecal content was conducted to determine the changes in gut microbiota composition. This study found an increase in relative abundance of Bacteroides and decrease in relative abundance of Firmicutes. An increase in Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio by 32% was also observed. It was concluded that early-life-repeated-administration of cefixime in rat has a significant increase in Bacteroidetes/Firmicutes ratio.

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