The faecal abundance of short chain fatty acids is increased in men with a non-dipping blood pressure profile

Abstract

Background and aims

Gut microbiota (GM) has been involved in the pathophysiology of hypertension (HT), notably via short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Among the clinical manifestations of HT, the absence of a significant drop in night-time blood pressure (BP) (also known as the non-dipping BP profile) has been associated with poor renal and cardiovascular outcomes. The putative link between GM-derived metabolites and BP dipping status is still unknown.

Methods

Male volunteers (n = 44) were prospectively subjected to 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, stool sample collection and a medical questionnaire. Metabolomics analyses of stool samples were conducted using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR).

Results

Higher amounts of acetate, butyrate and propionate were found in the stools of non-dippers (n = 12) versus dippers (n = 26) (p = 0.0252, p = 0.0468, and p = 0.0496, respectively; n = 38 in toto). NMR spectral data were not interpretable in 5 dippers and 1 non-dipper. A similar significant association was found when including only patients without anti-HT medications (p = 0.0414, p = 0.0108, and p = 0.0602, respectively; n = 21 in toto). A not significant trend was observed when focussing only on HT patients without anti-HT medications (p = 0.0556; n = 14 in toto).

Conclusion

Our pilot study highlights a putative link between GM-derived SCFAs and the BP dipping status, independently of the BP status itself or the anti-hypertensive medications.

Keywords:

• Hypertension
• gut microbiota
• dipping
• short chain fatty acid
• non-dipping blood pressure profile
• metabolomics

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank all patients who joined the study. We thank Laurence Poma (LTRN lab) for her technical assistance and commitment to this project.

Disclosure statement

All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest involving the work under consideration for publication.

Additional information

Funding

Grant Support: Fonds Léon Frédéricq. JH and FJ are Fellows of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), Belgium. PdT is Research Director of the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), Belgium. AC is supported by Belgian grants of the « Fonds pour la recherche dans l’industrie et l’agriculture » (FRIA).