Buffalo yogurt fermented with commercial starter and Lactobacillus plantarum originating from breast milk lowered blood pressure in pregnant hypertensive rats.

Nutritional therapy, which may have advantages over medication, is being investigated as a novel treatment for pregnancy-induced hypertension. Several studies have shown that probiotic yogurt supplementation during pregnancy has beneficial effects on maternal and fetal health. In this study, fermented buffalo milk was produced with yogurt culture and Lactobacillus plantarum B, a probiotic isolated from healthy breast milk with high angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitory activity. The fermentation conditions under which the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity reached 84.51% were optimized by the response surface method as follows: 2 × 106 cfu/mL of L. plantarum B, yogurt culture 2.5 × 105 cfu/mL, and 8 h at 37°C. The distribution of ACE inhibitory peptides from fermented buffalo milk and fermented cow milk were further analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. By searching according to the structural features of ACE inhibitory peptides, 29 and 11 peptides containing ACE inhibitory peptide features were found in fermented buffalo milk and fermented cow milk, respectively. To investigate the in vivo antihypertensive activity of fermented buffalo milk, 18 pregnant rats were divided into 3 groups (n = 6 in each group) and administered 10 mL of normal saline, yogurt (20 mg/kg), or labetalol hydrochloride (4 mg/kg) daily from the beginning of pregnancy to parturition. To induce hypertension, methyl nitrosoarginine (125 mg/kg) was injected subcutaneously every day from d 15 of pregnancy to the day of delivery. Blood pressure was not significantly changed in the yogurt and labetalol groups after induction of hypertension and was lower compared with the normal saline group, but there was no difference between the yogurt and labetalol groups. This implied that the buffalo yogurt had a preventive and antihypertensive effect in the pregnancy-induced hypertensive rat model. Further studies to determine the mechanism of action, as well as a randomized control trial, are warranted.

The relationship between diastolic pressure and coronary collateral circulation in patients with stable angina pectoris and chronic total occlusion.

BACKGROUND: The most important biomechanical source of activation of the coronary collateral circulation (CCC) is increased tangential fluid shear stress at the arterial endothelial surface. The coronary circulation is unique in that most coronary blood flow occurs in diastole. Consequently, the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) may influence the tangential fluid shear stress on the arterial endothelial surface in diastole, therebyaffecting development of the CCC. METHODS: To investigate this, we conducted a study of 222 patients with stable angina pectoris and chronic total occlusion of coronary arteries. All of the patients had no history of coronary artery interventional therapy, coronary artery bypass surgery, cardiomyopathy, or congenital heart disease. The extent of the collateral vasculature of the area perfused by the artery affected by chronic total occlusion was graded as poor or well-developed according to Rentrop's classification. RESULTS: Univariate analysis showed a significant difference between the study subgroup with poorly developed collaterals and that with well-developed collaterals in terms of high diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean DBP. Multivariate analysis revealed high DBP as the only independent positive predictor of a well-developed collateral circulation. CONCLUSIONS: High DBP is positively related to a well-developed CCC. Differences in development of the CCC may be one of the pathophysiologic mechanisms responsible for the J-curve phenomenon in the relationship between DBP and cardiovascular risk.