Obesity and the use of antibiotics and probiotics in rats.

Background: Obesity has become a major public health challenge in recent years. Recent studies suggest that alterations of the gut microbiota by antibiotics could play an important role in obesity.

Methods: We investigated this topic using 60 Wistar rats, which were divided into 3 experimental groups: rats treated with amoxicillin, rats treated with amoxicillin plus Saccharomyces boulardii and controls. Treatments were administered over the course of 2 weeks. Tetrapolar bioelectric impedance analysis and anthropometric evaluations were conducted.

Results: The body mass index was significantly lower for the animals in the control group (p = 0.034). The same result was observed for the Lee index: the control group had a lower index than the 2 groups that received antibiotic treatment (p = 0.0019). The total body water data demonstrated that the control group had the greatest amount of body water (279.1 g, p = 0.0243).

Conclusions: The groups treated with the antibiotic exhibited a greater accumulation of body fat than the control group.