What is it about?
We used a mouse model to show that maternal exposure to antibiotics can worsen prematurity-related lung disease. Mice that were exposed to antibiotics before birth and fed by control dams had more fibrosis with oxygen treatment than mice exposed to antibiotics only after birth. Offspring exposed to penicillin in the womb also had lower body mass and reduced capillary size compared with those not exposed before birth. Prenatal exposure also altered levels of proteins that promote inflammation and immune function as well as those that affect microbial signaling in the lungs.
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Why is it important?
This study provides valuable experimental evidence that manipulation of the gut microbiota by antibiotic exposure influences the progression of lung injury. These findings may assist in the interpretation of future observational studies in human newborns examining the role of the gut-lung axis in bronchopulmonary dysplasia.
Perspectives
This paper is the first to show an influence of the gut-lung axis in BPD. Joining work into asthma and pneumonia in newborns this work highlights that signaling from the gut alters the development and response to injury int he lung.
Dr Kent Willis
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Perinatal maternal antibiotic exposure augments lung injury in offspring in experimental bronchopulmonary dysplasia, AJP Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, October 2019, American Physiological Society,
DOI: 10.1152/ajplung.00561.2018.
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