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High levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a compound related to the consumption of fish, seafood and a predominantly vegetarian diet, can reduce the symptoms of heart disease associated with hypertension. New research in rats has shown that a low-dose treatment of TMAO reduces heart thickening (heart fibrosis) and markers of heart failure in an animal model of hypertension . The study is published before printing in the American Journal of Physiology – Cardiac and Circulatory Physiology and was chosen as an APSselect article for November.
Blood levels of TMAO increase significantly after consuming foods rich in TMAO, such as fish and vegetables. In addition, the liver produces TMAO from trimethylamine (TMA), a substance produced by intestinal bacteria. The cause of high levels of TMAO in the blood and effects of the compound on the heart and circulatory system is unclear and previous research was contradictory. It was previously thought that plasma levels of TMAO – and the risk of heart disease – increased after eating red meat and eggs. However, "it seems that a diet rich in fish and vegetarian, beneficial or at least neutral for cardiovascular risk, is associated with a plasma TMAO significantly higher than diets rich in red meat and eggs, which are considered as increasing cardiovascular risk. risk ", wrote researchers from the Warsaw Medical University in Poland and the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The researchers studied the effect of TMAO on rats with a genetic tendency to develop arterial hypertension (spontaneously hypertensive rats). One group of hypertensive rats received low dose TMAO supplements in their drinking water, and another group received pure water. They were compared to a group of control rats that did not exhibit the same genetic predisposition and received pure water. The dosage of TMAO has been designed to increase blood levels of TMAO approximately four times higher than what the body normally produces. The rats received TMAO treatment for 12 weeks or 56 weeks and were evaluated for heart and kidney damage and high blood pressure.
Treatment with TMAO did not affect the occurrence of arterial hypertension in any spontaneously hypertensive rats. However, the condition of animals receiving the compound was better than expected, even after more than a year of low-dose TMAO treatment. "A new discovery from our study is that [a] The increase in plasma TMAO four to five times does not exert any negative effect on the circulatory system. In contrast, low-dose TMAO treatment is associated with reduced cardiac fibrosis and [markers of] heart failure in spontaneously hypertensive rats, "the researchers wrote.
"Our study provides new evidence of a potential beneficial effect of a moderate increase in plasma TMAO on the overloaded heart pressure," wrote the research team. The researchers acknowledge that further study is needed to evaluate the effect of TMAO and TMA on the circulatory system. However, an indirect finding of the study might highlight the benefits to the heart of following a Mediterranean diet rich in fish and vegetables.
-Newswise
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