Gut microbes may foster heart disease
Helpful bacteria produce artery-hardening compound
Even the best of friends can be heartbreakers.
Friendly bacteria living in the intestines may contribute to heart disease just by helping digest dietary fats. Bacteria that break down a fat found in meat, dairy and some fish set off a chain reaction that leads to the buildup of an artery-clogging substance in the blood, say researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and their colleagues. The findings, published in the April 7 Nature, point to a new culprit in the hardening of arteries and may lead to new treatments for heart disease.
“We probably have underestimated the role our microbial flora play in modulating disease risk,” says Daniel Rader, a heart disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Rader, who was not involved in the study, says that gut bacteria may not be as big a factor in causing heart disease as diabetes or smoking, but could be important in tipping some people toward sickness.
Researchers led by Stanley Hazen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, didn’t start out to study gut bacteria. In fact, says Hazen, he had “no clue — zero,” that intestinal microbes were involved in heart disease. “I’d never even considered it or thought of the concept.”