Vascular wall condition, gut microbiota composition, and diet in patients withoutcardiovascular diseases

Purpose of the study. To study the relationship between the gut microbiota composition, the state of the vascular wall and nutrient intake in patients without clinical manifestation of cardiovascular disease.Materials and methods. The study included 92 residents from Moscow and the Moscow region, men and women aged 25 to 76 y.o., without clinical manifestations of chronic diseases, with no medical treatment but with possible presence of cardiovascular risk factors. All the participants were examined with duplex scanning of the carotid arteries with the definition of the thickness of the intima-media complex (IMC), the presence of atherosclerotic plaques, measuring carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), the measurement of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (C-RP) and sequencing of the V3-V4 variable regions of 16S rRNA genes of the gut microbiota.Diet was studied by quantitative assessment of consumer products using a standardized computer program «Analysis of Human Nutrition states» (version 1.2.4 Research Institute of Nutrition 2003-2006).Results. The study revealed that in the investigated cohort IMC thickness was greater in those with a large number of bacterial genera Serratia and Blautia. Bifidobacterium representation was increased and Blautia representation was decreased in those who consumed a lot of starch.Conclusion. The composition of the gut microbiota is associated with both vascular wall stiffness and atherosclerosis. In addition, the bacteria associated with subclinical atherosclerosis were more represented among those who consumed smaller amounts of complex carbohydrates.