Prevention and Reversal of Hypertension‐Induced Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction by a Plant‐Based Diet
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. CMD is driven by endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dysfunction. We aimed to test whether CMD could be mitigated by a plant-based diet (PBD) in an animal model of hypertension. METHODS: We compared 28- and 40-week-old female normotensive Wistar-Kyoto and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), maintained, from age 4 weeks, on a control refined diet or a PBD, composed of 28% fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes. A subset of control SHRs was switched to the PBD at 28 weeks. CMD was assessed by coronary flow reserve via echocardiogram. Cardiac microvascular endothelial function was assessed via cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Endothelial and VSMC function were assessed in the left ventricle or in isolated VSMCs. The role of gut microbiota was probed via 16S sequencing and antibiotics. Cardiac inflammation, oxidative stress, and fibrosis were also explored. RESULTS: SHRs exhibited endothelial dysfunction and likely VSMC dysfunction. A PBD did not ameliorate their hypertension but, nonetheless, prevented and reversed CMD. The PBD's mitigation of CMD was associated with improved endothelial nitric oxide synthase function and nitric oxide-mediated VSMC signaling, as well as reductions in left ventricular oxidative stress, inflammatory signaling, and fibrosis. A PBD altered the gut microbiota, although antibiotic studies failed to establish its importance in ameliorating CMD. CONCLUSIONS: A PBD prevented CMD development and reversed established CMD in SHRs. Such benefits of PBD, which occurred without alleviating hypertension, were possibly due to improved endothelial function and likely improved VSMC function. These results support clinical trials to test PBDs in human CMD.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".