Improvement of intestinal flora: accompany with the antihypertensive effect of electroacupuncture on stage 1 hypertension

Jun-Meng Wang, Ming-Xiao Yang, Qiao-Feng Wu, Ji Chen, Shu-Fang Deng, Lin Chen, Da-Neng Wei, Fan-Rong Liang, Jun-Meng Wang, Ming-Xiao Yang, Qiao-Feng Wu, Ji Chen, Shu-Fang Deng, Lin Chen, Da-Neng Wei, Fan-Rong Liang

Abstract

Background: Increasing evidence have indicated the relationship between intestinal dysbiosis and hypertension. We aimed to evaluate the effect of the electroacupuncture (EA) on intestinal microbiota in patients with stage 1 hypertension.

Methods: 93 hypertensive patients and 15 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. Applying a highly accurate oscillometric device to evaluate the antihypertensive effect of EA. 16S rRNA sequencing was used to profile stool microbial communities from Healthy group, Before treatment (BT) group and After treatment (AT) group, and various multivariate analysis approaches were used to assess diversity, composition and abundance of intestinal microbiota.

Results: In this study, EA significantly decreased the blood pressure (BP) of hypertensive patients. Higher abundance of Firmicutes and lower Bacteroidetes abundance were observed in the BT group compared to the Healthy group. And EA treatment significantly decreased the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio compared to the BT group. Moreover, at the genus level, there was an increased abundance of Escherichia-Shigella in patients with hypertension, while Blautia were decreased, and EA reversed these changes.

Conclusions: Our study indicates that EA can effectively lower BP and improve the structure of intestinal microbiota which are correlate with the alteration of blood pressure by electroacupuncture.

Trial registration: Clinicaltrial.gov, NCT01701726. Registered 5 October 2012, https://ichgcp.net/clinical-trials-registry/NCT01701726.

Keywords: Dysbiosis; Electro-acupuncture; Intestinal flora; Stage 1 hypertension.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Influence of EA on the diversity and richness of gut microbiota. a Simpson and b Shannon index represent community diversity of OTUs. c Ace and d Chao1 index represent community richness of OTUs. There was no significant difference in Alpha diversity among three groups
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
PLS-DA analysis for fecal microbiota of healthy group, before treatment group and after treatment group. a PLS-DA score plot for healthy group, before treatment group and after treatment group. b PLS-DA score plot for healthy group and before treatment group. c PLS-DA score plot for before treatment group and after treatment group. d PLS-DA score plot for healthy group and after treatment group. PLS-DA showed clear separation between Healthy and hypertension, and AT group showed a tendency toward the Healthy group
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Modulation of the composition of gut microbiota by EA. a Venn diagrams demonstrate the number of OTUs shared between the Healthy, BT and AT group by the overlap. b Bar chart depicts the variability in phylum-level composition in each group. c Pie chart shows the proportion of reads in genus for the Healthy, BT and AT group
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Influence of EA on the relative abundance of microbiota at each level. a The ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio, and b–d differences at each taxonomic level (phylum, family and genus). All data were expressed as mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Spearman correlation plots between bacterial at family and genus level and BP values. R in different colors to show, the right side of the legend is the color range of different R values. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01

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