A serving of blueberry (V. corymbosum) acutely improves peripheral arterial dysfunction in young smokers and non-smokers: two randomized, controlled, crossover pilot studies

Abstract

Several studies have documented the important role of polyphenol-rich foods in the modulation of vascular remodelling and function. This study aimed to evaluate the capacity of a single portion of blueberry (V. corymbosum) to acutely improve peripheral arterial dysfunction in a group of young volunteers. Twenty-four healthy males (12 non-smokers and 12 smokers) were recruited for two different randomized, controlled, crossover pilot acute studies. In the first study, non-smokers were exposed to a control treatment (C; 300 mL of water with sugar) and a blueberry treatment (BB; 300 g of blueberry). In the second study, smokers underwent 3 different protocols: (1) - smoking treatment (S); (2) - control treatment (CS; 300 mL of water with sugar + smoking); (3) - blueberry treatment (BS; 300 g of blueberry + smoking). Each treatment (1 day long) was separated by a one week washout period. Blood pressure, peripheral arterial function (reactive hyperemia index, RHI, a marker of endothelial function) and arterial stiffness (digital augmentation index, dAix and dAix normalized by considering a heart rate of 75 bpm, dAix@75) were measured before and after each treatment. In the first study, the consumption of blueberry and control treatment acutely increased peripheral arterial function in the group of non-smokers. The improvement in RHI was higher and significantly different after blueberry treatment compared to the control treatment (54.8 ± 8.4% BB vs. 28.2 ± 8.3% C; p = 0.01). No effects were observed for markers of arterial stiffness, blood pressure and heart rate. Acute cigarette smoke significantly increased blood pressure and heart rate, while no significant effect was registered in peripheral arterial function and stiffness. The intake of blueberry and control treatment before a cigarette did not counteract the increase in blood pressure and heart rate, while it significantly improved peripheral arterial function. In particular, a significant increase was observed following BS (35.2 ± 7.5% RHI; p = 0.02) and CS treatments (34.6 ± 11.9% RHI; p = 0.02) when compared to only smoking treatment. No difference between BS and CS was detected. In conclusion, the intake of blueberry and control treatments acutely improved peripheral arterial dysfunction both in smoker and in non-smoker subjects. Further studies should be performed to confirm the results obtained and reveal the potential mechanisms of blueberry in the improvement of endothelial function.

Protective Role of Polyphenols against Vascular Inflammation, Aging and Cardiovascular Disease

“…This effect was associated with increased antioxidant activity of SOD1, SOD2 and GRx and reduced lipid peroxidation [66]. Blueberry consumption also decreased peripheral artery dysfunction in both smoking and non-smoking male subjects 2 h after consuming 300 g of blueberries [80]. Strawberries have shown to have beneficial effects in patients with Type II diabetes (T2D) and metabolic syndrome.…”

Molecular Mechanism and Health Role of Functional Ingredients in Blueberry for Chronic Disease in Human Beings

“…Polyphenols in blueberry can regulate the vascular remodeling and improving the endothelial function both in smoker and in nonsmoker subjects [ 66 ]. Fermented blueberries with antihypertension properties can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases [ 104 ].…”

Potential Factors Influencing the Effects of Anthocyanins on Blood Pressure Regulation in Humans: A Review

“…Further details about the literature search process are provided in Figure 1. Sixty-six relevant studies were identified [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88], and their results related to blood pressure are summarized in Table 1 and Table 2.…”

“…Del Bo et al investigated the effect of a serving of blueberry juice providing 300–350 mg ACN in restoring blood pressure after a cigarette was smoked by young otherwise healthy smokers. In one study, the SBP spike induced by smoke was restored by the blueberry juice [28], but the effect was not replicated in a following study [29].…”