Pharmacol Res. 2026 Jun 5:108281. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2026.108281. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Hypertension (HTN) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, with chronic low-grade inflammation emerging as a critical contributor to its development and target organ damage. Emerging evidence implies gut microbiota in blood pressure regulation. However, the long-term impact of patient-derived gut dysbiosis on the chronic progression of HTN remains insufficiently characterized. This study aimed to determine how HTN-associated gut microbiota contributes to sustained blood pressure elevation and target organ damage during long-term colonization, and to elucidate underlying immune-metabolic mechanisms using multi-omics analyses. Fecal microbiota from hypertensive patients or normotensive controls were transplanted into germ-free mice, followed by continuous monitoring for 10 weeks to mimic the long-term adaptive remodeling of humanized microbiota within the host. Temporal dynamics of gut microbiota were assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses were performed on intestinal, cardiac, fecal, and serum samples. FMT from hypertensive patients induced sustained systolic blood pressure elevation and structural damage in target organs. HTN-FMT mice exhibited reduced microbial diversity and a dysbiotic signature characterized by enrichment of pro-inflammatory taxa and depletion of beneficial commensals. Metabolomic profiling revealed marked disturbances in polyunsaturated fatty acids metabolism. These metabolic alterations were accompanied by enhanced CD4⁺ T cell activation, elevated systemic inflammatory cytokines, and concordant enrichment of interleukin-17 signaling pathways in both intestinal and myocardial transcriptomes. These findings reveal interactions among gut dysbiosis, metabolic imbalance, and immune activation during long-term colonization with HTN-associated microbiota, underscoring the central role of the gut-immune axis in the chronic progression of hypertensive target organ injury.
PMID:42250785 | DOI:10.1016/j.phrs.2026.108281