How transplanted gut bacteria cause cardiovascular changes in mice

Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine and the University of Missouri Health Care Center discovered how obstructive sleep apnea affected the gut microbiota of mice, and how transplantation from sleep apnea affected the gut microbiota of mice led to cardiovascular changes

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic sleep disorder that affects more than 1 billion people

The study examined a group of mice fed gut bacteria from environments

Study co-author Dr Mohammad Badran, assistant professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Children's Health, said: "We found that mice transplanted from donors exposed to sleep apnea had elevated blood pressure, higher levels of harmful metabolites, and impaired

The researchers also injected each group of mice with a probiotic to see if beneficial gut bacteria could mitigate damage to the cardiovascular system

"Our results show that targeted probiotic supplementation played a role in preventing cardiovascular disease in mice that received gut bacterial transplantation, but we were surprised to find that this benefit did not extend to mice directly exposed to apnea conditions," said

Gerzar said the data suggest that changes in gut bacteria are one, but not the only, factor that regulates, but not the only one, that causes cardiovascular disease through sleep apnea

Further reading: Artificial sweeteners are not only related to intestinal metabolism, but may also be related to heart disease

Gut microbiota mediate vascular dysfunction in a murine model of sleep apnea: effect of probiotics