Flavanols and vascular function: from hypertension to kidney filtration

PRINCE, PD; PIOTRKWOWSKI, B; LITTERIO, MC; GALLEANO, M; FISCHERMAN, L

Buenos Aires

Congreso; IUNS 21st International Congress of Nutrition; 2017

International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS)

Flavanols are under active research as responsible for the beneficialeffects on human health associated to the consumption ofcertain fruits and vegetables. Particularly, the effects on vascularfunction constitute a relevant topic and are being thoroughly studiedbecause on their potential impact decreasing the prevalenceand incidence of hypertension and its related diseases, includingkidney dysfunction.We have extensively studied the vascular protection by (‒)-epicatechin(EC) in rodents subjected to dietary overload with bothfructose and fats. In both conditions the main effects of dietary ECwere associated with decreasing oxidative stress, inflammation,and maintaining functional levels of nitric oxide (NO).In rats overloaded with fructose (condition that mimics mostof the features of the metabolic syndrome in humans) was observedincrease in the blood pressure in association with a compromisedNO bioavailability at vascular level. Concomitantly,there was a development of kidney functional alterations, evaluatedas the presence of mild proteinuria, as well as renal cortex fibrosis,decreases in nephrin, synaptopodin, and WT1 (all indicatorsof podocyte dysfunction), increased markers of oxidative stress,and development of pro-inflammatory conditions, manifested asNF-κB activation, and higher expression of TNFα, iNOS, and IL-6.Dietary supplementation with EC prevented or ameliorated mostof these adverse effects of high fructose consumption.When analyzed in terms of biochemical mechanisms, it is possibleto hypothesize that all these effects are consequence of theregulation of the tissue production of NO and superoxide anion byEC: i) NO generation through NO synthases, ii) superoxide anion,essentially produced by NADPH-oxidases, and iii) the resultantbalance considering the high rate of reaction between NO and superoxideanion.In summary, our results suggest that EC ingested through themany fruits and vegetables that contains it, would protect the vascularand kidney function of patients with metabolic diseases. Thisinformation can be valuable to design nutritional approaches withscientific bases to modify the development of silent conditionsthat when chronically established develop in disease and pathologicalconditions.