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Clin. Vaccine Immunol. doi:10.1128/CVI.00055-06
Copyright (c) 2006, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Antibiotic administration early in life impairs specific humoral responses to an oral antigen and increases intestinal mast cell numbers and mediators

Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: sophie.nutten{at}rdls.nestle.com,

	Abstract

In this study, we assessed the effect of administrating the antibiotic amoxicillin to rat pups on the immune response to orally fed ovalbumin (OVA). We firstly 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 the antibiotic administration of the rat pups. We also examined the consequences of those observations on further allergic reactions. The amoxicillin administration had no significant impact on subsequent sensitization to OVA as non-exacerbated 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 intestine, independently of the antigen administration. Globally, our data suggest that an antibiotic administration early in life negatively affects the specific immune response to a luminal antigen when it is first introduced during the antibiotic administration. Increased mast cell number and mediator concentration in the intestinal mucosa of the antibiotic-treated animals, may testify of the early stages of an altered immune system homeostasis.