Association Between the Gut Microbiota and Blood Pressure in a Population Cohort of 6953 Individuals
Journal of the American Heart Association ORIGINAL RESEARCH Association Between the Gut Microbiota and Blood Pressure in a Population Cohort of 6953 Individuals Joonatan Palmu , MD; Aaro Salosensaari , MSc; Aki S. Havulinna , DSc (Tech); Susan Cheng , MD, MPH; Michael Inouye, PhD; Mohit Jain, MD, PhD; Rodolfo A. Salido , BSc; Karenina Sanders , BSc; Caitriona Brennan, BSc; Gregory C. Humphrey, BSc; Jon G. Sanders , PhD; Erkki Vartiainen , MD, PhD; Tiina Laatikainen , MD, PhD; Pekka Jousilahti, MD, PhD; Veikko Salomaa , MD, PhD; Rob Knight , PhD; Leo Lahti , DSc (Tech); Teemu J. Niiranen , MD, PhD BACKGROUND: Several small-scale animal studies have suggested that gut microbiota and blood pressure (BP) are linked. However, results from human studies remain scarce and conflicting. We wanted to elucidate the multivariable-adjusted as- sociation between gut metagenome and BP in a large, representative, well-phenotyped population sample. We performed a focused analysis to examine the previously reported inverse associations between sodium intake and Lactobacillus abun- dance and between Lactobacillus abundance and BP. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied a population sample of 6953 Finns aged 25 to 74 years (mean age, 49.2±12.9 years; 54.9% women). The participants underwent a health examination, which included BP measurement, stool collection, and 24-hour urine sampling (N=829). Gut microbiota was analyzed using shallow shotgun metagenome sequencing. In age- and sex-adjusted models, the α (within-sample) and β (between-sample) diversities of taxonomic composition were strongly re- lated to BP indexes (P<0.001 for most). In multivariable-adjusted models, β diversity was only associated with diastolic BP (P=0.032).
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