Antibiotic Administration Early in Life Impairs Specific Humoral Responses to an Oral Antigen and Increases Intestinal Mast Cell Numbers and Mediator Concentrations
- 1 February 2007
- journal article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
- Vol. 14 (2), 190-197
- https://doi.org/10.1128/cvi.00055-06
Abstract
In this study, we assessed the effect of administering the antibiotic amoxicillin to rat pups on the immune response to orally fed ovalbumin (OVA). We first established that amoxicillin administration durably altered the gut microbiota of these animals. In parallel, we observed that the induction of the specific humoral response to ovalbumin was impaired when it occurred during antibiotic administration to the rat pups. We also examined the consequences of those observations on further allergic reactions. Amoxicillin administration had no significant impact on subsequent sensitization to OVA, as nonexacerbated systemic allergic responses were induced in antibiotic-treated animals. However, increased rat mast cell protease II levels and higher mast cell numbers were detected in their small intestines, independently of the antigen administration. Globally, our data suggest that antibiotic administration early in life negatively affects the specific immune response to a luminal antigen when it is first introduced during antibiotic administration. The increased mast cell numbers and mediator concentrations in the intestinal mucosae of the antibiotic-treated animals may testify to the early stages of an altered immune system homeostasis.Keywords
This publication has 50 references indexed in Scilit:
- Neonatal antibiotic treatment alters gastrointestinal tract developmental gene expression and intestinal barrier transcriptomePhysiological Genomics, 2005
- Commonly Used Drugs Impair Oral Tolerance in MiceAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2004
- Role of toll-like receptor 4 in protection by bacterial lipopolysaccharide in the nasal mucosa of atopic children but not adultsThe Lancet, 2004
- The role of early infections, hygiene and intestinal microfloraPediatric Pulmonology, 2004
- Probiotics and prevention of atopic disease: 4-year follow-up of a randomised placebo-controlled trialThe Lancet, 2003
- The Failure of Oral Tolerance Induction is Functionally Coupled to the Absence of T Cells in Peyer's Patches under Germfree ConditionsImmunobiology, 2001
- Release of Mast Cell Tryptase from Human Colorectal Mucosa in Inflammatory Bowel DiseaseScandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2001
- The rat mucosal mast cell chymase, RMCP-11, alters epithelial cell monolayer permeability in association with altered distribution of the tight junction proteins ZO-1 and occludinEuropean Journal of Cell Biology, 1998
- The absence of gut flora, the doses of antigen ingested and aging affect the long-term peripheral tolerance induced by ovalbumin feeding in miceResearch in Immunology, 1996
- Release of the mucosal mast cell granule chymase, rat mast cell protease-II, during anaphylaxis is associated with the rapid development of paracellular permeability to macromolecules in rat jejunum.The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1995