Health · Medical Research · 3 hrs ago
Blueberries reduced blood vessel inflammation in mice only when gut microbes were present
Researchers tested blueberries in mice to see whether gut microbes help shape their effects on blood vessels.
The study compared mice with normal gut microbes with germ-free mice and mice given antibiotics to reduce their microbes.
Mice with gut microbes produced more blueberry-related compounds in their blood after eating blueberries.
Blueberries reduced blood vessel inflammation in mice on a high-fat diet, but this effect was lost when gut microbes were removed.
The compound hippuric acid was linked to lower inflammation, but the study did not show that it caused the change.
The findings point to gut microbes as part of how blueberries may affect blood vessels, but this study in mice does not establish the same effect in people.
Blueberry supplementation reduced high-fat-diet-induced blood vessel inflammation in mice with gut microbes, but the effect was lost after microbes were depleted.
Conventionally raised mice had higher plasma concentrations of blueberry-associated metabolites than germ-free or antibiotic-treated mice.
Germ-free mice showed minimal changes in these metabolites after receiving blueberries.
Hippuric acid was inversely associated with inflammatory markers, but the researchers did not establish that it caused the reduction in inflammation.
The study examined how gut microbes and blueberry-derived metabolites may influence vascular effects.
- Who
- Researchers studied male mice, including conventionally raised, germ-free and antibiotic-treated animals.
- What
- The study found that blueberry supplementation reduced high-fat-diet-induced vascular inflammation when gut microbes were present.
- When
- Not stated
- Where
- The study was published in the journal Food & Function.
- Why
- Researchers examined how gut microbes and plasma metabolites influence the vascular effects of blueberry phytochemicals.
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- Study
- Published in Food & Function
- Blueberry dose
- 3.7% by weight in the diet
- Human-equivalent estimate
- 240 g of fresh blueberries, or approximately 1.5 daily servings
- Microbe-depletion period
- 12 weeks
- Antibiotic mixture
- Ampicillin, metronidazole and neomycin sulfate at 1.0 g/L each, plus vancomycin at 500 mg/L