Berry-Enriched Diet in Salt-Sensitive Hypertensive Rats: Metabolic Fate of (Poly)Phenols and the Role of Gut Microbiota.

Gomes Gomes,Brenner Brenner,Berry Berry,Motilva Motilva,Dos Santos Dos Santos,Van De Wiele Van De Wiele,Carregosa Carregosa,Macià Macià,Foito Foito,Oudot Oudot,Stewart Stewart

doi:10.3390/nu11112634

Abstract

Diets rich in (poly)phenols are associated with a reduced reduction in the incidence of cardiovascular disorders. While the absorption and metabolism of (poly)phenols has been described, it is not clear how their metabolic fate is affected under pathological conditions. This study evaluated the metabolic fate of berry (poly)phenols in an in vivo model of hypertension as well as the associated microbiota response. Dahl salt-sensitive rats were fed either a low-salt diet (0.26% NaCl) or a high-salt diet (8% NaCl), with or without a berry mixture (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, Portuguese crowberry and strawberry tree fruit) for 9 weeks. The salt-enriched diet promoted an increase in the urinary excretion of berry (poly)phenol metabolites, while the abundance of these metabolites decreased in faeces, as revealed by UPLC–MS/MS. Moreover, salt and berries modulated gut microbiota composition as demonstrated by 16S rRNA analysis. Some changes in the microbiota composition were associated with the high-salt diet and revealed an expansion of the families Proteobacteria and Erysipelotrichaceae. However, this effect was mitigated by the dietary supplementation with berries. Alterations in the metabolic fate of (poly)phenols occur in parallel with the modulation of gut microbiota in hypertensive rats. Thus, beneficial effects of (poly)phenols could be related with these interlinked modifications, between metabolites and microbiota environments.

Highlights

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, accounting for more than 17 million deaths, meaning that more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause [1]
This work aims to address this knowledge gap by providing evidence of the metabolic fate of dietaryphenols, in a rat model of hypertension where we previously described that they developed elevated systolic blood pressure (SPB), cardiac dysfunction and hypertrophy [21], as well as evaluating alterations in the model’s gut microbiota composition by thisphenol rich diet in the context of hypertension
To ensure that the differences observed in polyphenol metabolism of the animals, are not related with food matrix effects, we assessed whether the high-salt content in the diets had an influence in thephenol content extracted from the berries or on the release ofphenols from the food matrix after digestion

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, accounting for more than 17 million deaths, meaning that more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause [1]. CVDs are a group of disorders affecting the heart and blood vessels, and include diseases and/or syndromes such as atherosclerosis and hypertension, ischemic coronary and heart diseases, myocardial infarction, and heart failure [1,2]. Most of these diseases are heterogeneous conditions with diverse aetiologies and comorbidities, generally aggravated by age and risk factors such as family history, gender, tobacco and alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, cholesterol, and hypertension. Numerous other effects have been reported, such as endothelial dysfunction, stroke, ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis, arterial and ventricular stiffening, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and heart failure [6]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion