Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective and anti-platelet properties of dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite

By A. Webb, N. Patel, S. Loukogeorgakis, M. Okorie, Z. Aboud, S. Misra, R. Rashid, P. Miall, J. Deanfield, N. Benjamin and 3 more. HYPERTENSION, 2008

1,081 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables reduce blood pressure (BP) and the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. However, the mechanisms of this effect have not been elucidated. Certain vegetables possess a high nitrate content, and we hypothesized that this might represent a source of vasoprotective nitric oxide via bioactivation. In healthy volunteers, approximately 3 hours after ingestion of a dietary nitrate load (beetroot juice 500 mL), BP was substantially reduced (&Dgr;max −10.4/8 mm Hg); an effect that correlated with peak increases in plasma nitrite concentration. The dietary nitrate load also prevented endothelial dysfunction induced by an acute ischemic insult in the human forearm and significantly attenuated ex vivo platelet aggregation in response to collagen and ADP. Interruption of the enterosalivary conversion of nitrate to nitrite (facilitated by bacterial anaerobes situated on the surface of the tongue) prevented the rise in plasma nitrite, blocked the decrease in BP, and abolished the inhibitory effects on platelet aggregation, confirming that these vasoprotective effects were attributable to the activity of nitrite converted from the ingested nitrate. These findings suggest that dietary nitrate underlies the beneficial effects of a vegetable-rich diet and highlights the potential of a “natural” low cost approach for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Subfields: Biochemistry, Pathology and Forensic Medicine, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cbdc4d137c8f38c6452cf7c1022231f501c9575a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biochemistry

1. E. Weitzberg
2. F. Larsen
3. B. Ekblom
4. N. Bryan
5. K. Sahlin
6. Yaoping Tang
7. N. Hord
8. Tomas A. Schiffer

In Physiology

1. E. Weitzberg
2. J. Lundberg
3. F. Larsen
4. B. Ekblom
5. N. Bryan
6. K. Sahlin
7. Tomas A. Schiffer
8. S. Borniquel

Citations in the corpus

• ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations (2018, background): “tolerated when consumed as both supplemental [587] and supplemental sources [588] without significant alterations in hemodynamics or clinical boundaries of hepatorenal and muscle enzyme status [478, 589].”
• Food sources of nitrates and nitrites: the physiologic context for potential health benefits. (2009, background): “The recent demonstration of the vasoprotective, blood pressure– lowering, and antiplatelet aggregation properties of nitrite alone, or of nitrite originating from dietary nitrate, suggests that a reexamination of the health effects of dietary sources of nitrate and nitrite would be beneficial (31, 3”
• Dietary inorganic nitrate improves mitochondrial efficiency in humans. (2011, background): “Mounting data suggest that nitrite is an obligate intermediate in the bioactivation of nitrate (Govoni et al., 2008; Webb et al., 2008) and that ETS proteins are capable of reducing nitrite to NO (Nohl et al.”
• Dietary nitrate supplementation enhances muscle contractile efficiency during knee-extensor exercise in humans. (2010, background): “reductions in the mean systolic BP ( 5 mmHg) and diastolic BP ( 2 mmHg) as well as mean arterial pressure ( 2 mmHg) over days 4–6, supporting the notion that both systolic and diastolic BP can be reduced following NO3 administration (52, 74).”
• Chronic exposure to nitrate significantly reduces growth and affects the health status of juvenile Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) in recirculating aquaculture systems (2017, background): “…stable (~ 8 h, Webb, Patel, Loukogeorgakis, Okorie, About, Misra, Rashid, Miall, 319 Deanfield, Benjamin, MacAllister, Hobbs & Ahluwalia 2008) and anaerobic conversion of nitrate 320 to nitrite in the gut needs to be considered (Webb et al. 2008; Speijers & van den Brandt 2003; 321 Fanning 2000).”
• Risk Factors Contributing to Type 2 Diabetes and Recent Advances in the Treatment and Prevention (2014, background): “It has been demonstrated that NO3- and nitrite (NO2-) may have some therapeutic implications, such as decreasing blood pressure [142], reducing oxidative stress [143], and reducing oxygen consumption during exercise.”
• Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low-intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high-intensity exercise in humans. (2009, background): “Importantly, interrupting the entero-salivary circulation by spitting out saliva thwarted the rise in plasma [NO2 ] (62), while administration of antibacterial mouthwash before sodium nitrate ingestion also prevented the rise in plasma [NO2 ] by decreasing the NO3 -reducing bacteria counts in the or”