In order to find direct evidence, the research team began to design the relevant methods of the study since 2010; since 2012, about 1,500 urine samples of school-age children in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai have been collected each year, and the collection will continue until 2014. In the meantime, the researchers of the research group have explored and established a high-throughput detection method for a variety of antibiotics in urine samples after long-term laboratory work.
In order to study the impact of childhood antibiotic use or exposure to food antibiotics on children’s fat production, the research team used antibiotic biomonitoring methods for the first time in the world, and conducted urine samples of 586 school-age children aged 8 to 11 collected in Shanghai in 2013. The results of the study determined that there were 21 antibiotics in urine, including 5 macrolide antibiotics, 2 β-lactam antibiotics, 3 tetracycline antibiotics, 4 quinolone antibiotics, 4 sulfonamide antibiotics and 3 One or more of the 21 antibiotics were detected in the urine of 79.6% of school-age children.
In order to clarify the relationship between antibiotics and obesity, the researchers divided children into three groups from low to high according to the concentration of veterinary antibiotics in the urine.
After adjusting for factors such as gender, age, parent’s education level, income level, puffed food intake, smoking status of relatives and friends, the study found that compared with children in the low concentration group, the risk of obesity for children in the medium and high concentration groups is 1.99 times to 3 times of the low concentration group.
At the same time, the research team used the body mass index and waist circumference to determine whether children were overweight or obese. After further analysis of urine, it was found that exposure to veterinary antibiotics or antibiotics mainly used in animals is significantly related to children’s overweight or obesity.
This also shows that there is a positive association between exposure to antibiotics mainly from food and the risk of childhood obesity. Researchers believe that the environmental sources of veterinary antibiotics enter the human body mainly through contaminated water and food.
Obesity or overweight was not observed in this study, which is significantly associated with medical antibiotics that are mainly used in the population. The research team believes that the use of medical antibiotics is essentially a short-term high-dose exposure, while the antibiotic exposure from food or the environment is a long-term low-dose exposure. This result suggests that the exposure pattern of antibiotics may be one of the important factors affecting its promotion of fat production.
The research team stated that in 2013, the use of antibiotics in China reached 162,000 tons a year, accounting for about half of the world’s consumption, 52% of which were for veterinary use, 48% for human use, and more than 50,000 tons of antibiotics were discharged into the water and soil environment.
In view of the universality of population antibiotic exposure and the huge pressure on personal health and social development caused by current obesity, they will expand the test sample size, and use longitudinal research combined with animal model research to further explore the effects of children’s exposure to low-dose antibiotics on children’s growth and development. Health effects.
The research team is testing and analyzing the collected drinking water samples and food samples to further clarify the main sources of the aforementioned antibiotics
