The Gastrointestinal Tract: an Initial Organ of Metabolic Hypertension?

Abstract

Hypertension is an important global public-health challenge because of its high prevalence and concomitant risks for cardiovascular and kidney diseases. More than 60% of the risk factors for hypertension are associated with metabolic disorders. Furthermore, many metabolic risk factors can directly cause the vascular dysfunction and the elevated blood pressure. Metabolic disorders not only increase the risk for hypertension but also participate in the development of hypertension. Thus, some types of hypertension induced by metabolic disturbances can be defined as metabolic hypertension. However, the pathogenesis of metabolic hypertension remains largely unknown. The gastrointestinal tract is a unique gate through which external food, metabolites, and microbes enter the human body. Thus, metabolism-related risk factors may affect blood pressure through the gastrointestinal tract and alter processes such as taste perception, mucosal absorption, gut hormone homeostasis, GI nerve activity, and gut microbiota. Meanwhile, gastrointestinal intervention through dietary approaches, gut microbiota modification, and metabolic surgery could profoundly improve or remit the vascular dysfunction and metabolic hypertension. It suggests that the GI tract could be an initial organ of metabolic hypertension. However, more clinical and basic studies are necessary to further validate this novel concept.

Prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors among community-dwelling older persons in Sri Lanka: a cross-sectional study

“…Our participants with hypertension were 70% more likely to be malnourished. The reason behind this may be the pathophysiological effects of diseases which lead to loss of appetite and decreased digestion, absorption and metabolism [50]. …”

The Gut, Its Microbiome, and Hypertension

“…Life-style choices and illnesses that affect the risk for developing HTN, impact the GM and gut motility. Finally, dysbiosis of the GM has recently been linked to metabolic HTN [ 10 ], HTN during obese pregnancies [ 11 ], lifetime risk of developing HTN [ 12 ••], and found in pre-hypertensive as well as hypertensive populations of Asian descent [ 13 ••]. These connections and their link to HTN is the focus of this review.…”

Interactions of Dihydromyricetin, a Flavonoid from Vine Tea (Ampelopsis grossedentata) with Gut Microbiota

“…It was noteworthy that the parent compound and metabolites of DMY were hardly detected in the plasma, whereas most of them were eliminated in feces (Fan et al., ). As we known, the GI is a unique route through which external substances enter the human body (Zhu, Xiong, & Liu, ), populated by the concentrations of up to 10 11 or 10 12 cells/g and consists of a complex microbial community called gut microbiota (Etxeberria et al., ). The gut microbiota could provide physiological benefits through the commensal relationships with the host.…”