mouse gut metagenome Raw sequence reads

High blood pressure (also called hypertension) is one of the most important risk factors for a range of cardiovascular diseases including heart attack, heart failure and stroke. While epidemiological studies show that obesity and a high fat diet are clear contributors to hypertension, it is also starting to emerge that other dietary components such as fibre might also modulate blood pressure, although the mechanism is completely unknown. Intriguingly, recent studies point towards an interaction between dietary fibre and the type of bacteria in the gut which can influence inflammatory diseases. We investigated whether dietary fibre (and associated short chain fatty acids produced in the gut by fibre consumption) influences the development of high blood pressure, kidney and heart dysfunction in a mineralocorticoid excess (DOCA) mouse model through changes in the gut microbiota.