Correlation of intestinal flora and its metabolite short-chain fatty acids with cardiovascular risk levels in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive population
QIN Xue1,2, BAI Xue-song1
1. Department of Gastroenterology, Dazhou Central Hospital, Dazhou, Sichuan 635000, China; 2. School of Clinical Medicine, Dazhou Vocational and Technical College, Dazhou, Sichuan 635001, China
Abstract:Objective To explore the differences in intestinal flora in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients with different levels of cardiovascular risk so as to provide references for understanding the role of intestinal flora in cardiovascular disease in hypertensive population. Methods We selected middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients admitted to Department of Gastroenterology, the People’s Hospital of Dazhou City from January to December 2021. 300 study subjects were then selected from hypertensive patients at low, medium and high cardiovascular risk (each n=100), while 100 health check-up persons weresimultaneously chosen as the control group. Feces were collected from patients in each group and bacterial DNA was isolated. The associations between the degree of cardiovascular risk and the structure, abundance and diversity of intestinal flora were compared by 16s rDNA high-throughput sequencing, and the differences in short-chain fatty acids levels among the groups were also analyzed. Results A total of 542 taxonomic operational units (OTUs) were obtained in the study subjects, and the comparison of the unique OUT (χ2=0.287, P=0.963) between different groups was not statistically significant. However, the comparisons of ACE (F=8.305, P<0.001), Shannon index (F=52.796, P<0.001), Simpson index (F=75.628, P<0.001) and Chao index (F=5.250, P=0.002) were statistically significant when compared between groups. The groups showed statistically significant differences in the relative abundance of the Bacteroidetes (F=5.639, P<0.001), Bacillota (F=12.740, P<0.001), Pseudomonadota (F=12.209, P<0.001) and Acidobacteria (F=6.572, P<0.001). Moreover, the results showed statistically significant differences in the Rothia (F=28.936, P<0.001), Bifidobacterium (F=15.668, P<0.001) and Eubacterium faecalis (F=10.724, P<0.001). Spearman’s correlation regression analysis showed that acetic acid levels were positively correlated with ACE (R2=0.410, P<0.01), Shannon index (R2=0.340, P<0.05), Simpson index (R2=0.574, P<0.01) and Chao index (R2=0.544, P<0.01). Butyric acid levels were positively correlated with ACE (R2=0.681, P<0.01), Shannon index (R2=0.673, P<0.01) and Simpson index (R2=0.695, P<0.01). Valeric acid levels were positively correlated with ACE (R2=0.526, P<0.01), Shannon index (R2=0.419, P<0.05) and Simpson index (R2=0.507, P<0.05). Compared with the control group, intestinal acetic acid, butyric acid and valeric acid levels decreased in hypertensive patients in the different cardiovascular risk groups, and the differences in intestinal acetic acid (F=6.012, P<0.001), butyric acid (F=70.950, P<0.001) and valeric acid (F=10.926, P<0.001) levels were statisticallysignificant. Conclusion In this study, we found that the diversity index and homogeneity index of intestinal flora were closelyassociated with cardiovascular risk in the hypertensive patients, and intestinal flora may influence cardiovascular risk in thehypertensive patients through the metabolite short-chain fatty acids. The flora therapy may be a potential intervention to counteract cardiovascular risk in the hypertensive patients.
覃雪, 白学松. 肠道菌群及其代谢产物短链脂肪酸与中老年高血压人群心血管风险水平的相关性研究[J]. 实用预防医学, 2023, 30(1): 43-48.
QIN Xue, BAI Xue-song. Correlation of intestinal flora and its metabolite short-chain fatty acids with cardiovascular risk levels in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive population. , 2023, 30(1): 43-48.