Blood pressure (BP) control was hypothesized to be influenced by oral bacteria. However, there was a scarcity of epidemiological evidence to support the idea. Therefore, researchers examined the relationship between oral microbiome, blood pressure, and incident hypertension in postmenopausal women. A subgingival plaque was collected, BP was assessed, and medical, and lifestyle histories and prescription inventories were gathered during baseline examinations (1997–2001) on 1,215 women (mean age, 63 years). Using 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing, the microbiome composition of subgingival plaque was determined. Normal (systolic <120 mm Hg and diastolic <80 mm Hg, no BP medication usage; n=429), raised (systolic ≥120 mm Hg or diastolic ≥80 mm Hg, no medication use; n=306), or prevalent treated hypertension (history of physician diagnosis treated with drugs; n=480). Newly diagnosed hypertension treated with medication reported on yearly health surveys (mean follow-up, 10.4 years) was characterized as incident hypertension (375 instances out of 735 without baseline treated hypertension). Cross-sectional analysis revealed 47 bacterial species (out of a total of 245) that differed substantially (P<0.05) depending on baseline BP status. In a prospective study, 15 baseline bacterial species were shown to be substantially (P<0.05) linked to incident hypertension, with 10 being positively (age-adjusted hazard ratios [HRs], 1.10–1.16 per SD in bacterial abundance) and 5 being inversely (HRs, 0.82–0.91) linked. After adjusting for demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors, the associations remained essentially unchanged; they were similar when the study was limited to the normotensive group; and the magnitudes of the associations were consistent across strata of baseline age, smoking, BMI, and BP categories. Specific oral bacteria were linked to baseline blood pressure levels and the risk of developing hypertension in postmenopausal women.
Source:www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.121.021930
