Gut Microbiome Affects Salt-Sensitive Hypertension in Mice and Humans

Salt-sensitive hypertension is caused, at least in part, by expansion of intravascular volume due to a high-salt diet. In a new study, researchers investigated an additional mechanism: the gut microbiome's response to a high-salt diet.

In mice, a high-salt diet led to depletion of Lactobacillus species, particularly of one Lactobacillus species, L. murinus. This was followed by an increase in the number of particular lymphocytes (T-helper [TH]17) that drive many autoimmune diseases and then by a rise in blood pressure. When researchers supplemented the mouse feed with the depleted species of lactobacilli, these changes were reversed.

To examine this phenomenon in humans, 12 healthy nonhypertensive men received slow-release salt tablets in add…