Fig. 4

Lasting effects of early-life antibiotic exposure on DSS-induced colitis severity and on intestinal microbial communities. a Schematic of the late time point DSS experiment. Sample sizes were the control/H2O (n = 9), PAT/H2O (n = 14), control/DSS (n = 18), and PAT/DSS (n = 26) mice for a–d. For lipocalin analyses (e) sample sizes were the control/H2O (n = 5), PAT/H2O (n = 4), control/DSS (n = 15), and PAT/DSS (n = 23). For histology scoring (f) sample sizes were the control/H2O (n = 4), PAT/H2O (n = 4), control/DSS (n = 4), and PAT/DSS (n = 4). For microbiome analyses (g, h) sample sizes were the control/H2O (n = 6), PAT/H2O (n = 8), control/DSS (n = 8), and PAT/DSS (n = 8). Tylosin exposure or not and study design was exactly as in Fig. 1, except experimental colitis by the DSS challenge was induced at P40, 30 days after PAT ended instead of P25. b–f used the same measurements and criteria as in Fig. 1, except at the time points reflecting the different study design. Fecal lipocalin-2 levels were measured at P50. g Unweighted UniFrac distances between the PAT and control groups at P40 (before start of DSS), and mean pairwise UniFrac distances within and between groups. h LEfSe cladograms indicating significantly differential taxa in control and PAT mice at P40 (30 days after PAT and immediately before the DSS challenge) and P47 (following the DSS challenge). Two-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for multiple comparisons. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ****p < 0.0001