Early exposure to antibiotics may affect adult gut health.

ISLAMABAD -- A team of researchers has discovered that early life exposure to antibiotics has long-lasting effects on the nervous system and can lead to gastrointestinal issues.

The study observed that antibiotics given to neonatal mice have these long-lasting effects which result in disturbed gastrointestinal function, including the speed of motility through the gut and diarrhoea-like symptoms in adulthood.

"Our study shows that antibiotics given after birth could have prolonged effects on the enteric nervous system. This provides further evidence of the importance of microbiota on gut health and could introduce new targets to advance antibiotic treatment to very young children," said Jaime Foong, University of Melbourne in Australia.

The team gave mice an oral dose of vancomycin every day for the first 10 days of their lives and reared them normally until they were young adults...