Impact of maternal intrapartum antibiotics on the initial oral microbiome of neonates

Abstract

Neonatal oral microbiome; Maternal intrapartum antibiotics; 16S rRNA sequencing Objectives: Prior studies have proposed that maternal intrapartum antibiotic exposure shapes the gut microbiota and, subsequently the child's health. However, the effect of maternal intrapartum antibiotic exposure and its influence on the development of the neonatal oral microbiota in early infancy has not yet been reported. The aim of this study was to compare the initial oral microbiota immediately after birth of healthy infants with and without intrapartum antibiotic exposure. Methods: Twenty-two newborns of the BaoAn Maternal and Child Care Hospital (Shenzhen, China) were recruited for this study, 11 born to mothers without intrapartum antibiotic exposure (NT group) and 11 to mothers with intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis with cefamezin (AT group). Oral microbiome profiles were determined by 16S rRNA sequencing based on the V3eV4 hyper-variable regions. Results: Phylum Firmicutes was most frequently detected in subjects both groups and a higher frequency was observed in the NT group than the AT group. Phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were more abundant after intrapartum antibiotics exposure. Genus Lactobacillus belonging to Firmicutes was predominant in the neonates not exposed to antibiotics, while significantly higher percentages of genera Klebsiella, Roseburia, Propionibacterium, Faecalibacterium, Escherichia/Shigella, Corynebacterium, Bifidobacterium, and Bacteroides were noted in AT infants than NT infants. Further function analysis demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis and amino aciderelated metabolic function was enriched in the AT group, and carbohydrate metabolism pathways were more abundant in the NT group. Conclusions: These findings revealed distinctions in both taxa and metabolic function of oral microbiota between antibiotics-treated and unexposed groups, which indicated that maternal intrapartum antibiotic treatment is a key regulator of the initial neonatal oral microbiome.

Impact of antibiotics on the human microbiome and consequences for host health

“…At 3 months, they show underrepresentation of Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, and higher Enterococcus and Clostridium (Azad et al, 2016), as well as a higher abundance of Enterobacteriaceae (Mazzola et al, 2016), as compared to nonantibiotic exposed infants. Similar results were reported in a recent study including 22 newborns which demonstrated that maternal intrapartum antibiotics can affect the infant oral microbiota with phyla Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria being more abundant in infants of antibiotic-treated mothers (Li et al, 2019). Another study in 28 preterm infants (with fecal samples collected on Day 7 and 14 from birth) demonstrated similar results with decreases in Bacteroidetes and…”

The Oral Microbiota: Community Composition, Influencing Factors, Pathogenesis, and Interventions

“…The use of amoxicillin has also been shown to reduce the abundances of Neisseria, Streptococcus, and Veillonella in the oral microbiota (Larsson Wexell et al, 2016;Moraes et al, 2020). In another study, a group of neonates was enriched in lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis and amino-acid-related metabolic functions after maternal antibiotic exposure, whereas the group of unexposed neonates was enriched in carbohydrate metabolic pathways (Li H. et al, 2019).…”

The Initial Oral Microbiota of Neonates Among Subjects With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

“…All samples were collected by trained nurses according to the previously described protocol (18). During the sample collection process, nurses wore facial masks and sterile gloves and mothers did not handle to avoid possible contaminations.…”

“…In this light, there were growing interests in understanding which endogenous and environmental factors influence the composition of the neonatal oral microbiome. More and more studies demonstrated that numerous factors were related to the initial colonization of the first oral microbiome (17,18), especially the status of mother, which was the primary source (19).…”