Beneficial effects of acute trans-resveratrol supplementation in treated hypertensive patients with endothelial dysfunction

Abstract

Endothelial dysfunction is a surrogate marker of cardiovascular risk. Resveratrol is known to improve endothelial function in animals, however, clinical trials are limited. We hypothesized that the acute trans-resveratrol supplementation improves endothelial function in treated hypertensive patients with endothelial dysfunction. Twenty-four hypertensive patients between 45 and 65 years-old with baseline endothelial dysfunction were enrolled in a randomized, cross-over, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Individuals received either a single dose of trans-resveratrol (300 mg) or placebo and were crossed-over after a one-week washout period. Blood pressure (BP) measurements, aortic systolic blood pressure (SBP) and brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD) were performed before and 1.5 hours after the intervention. FMD was significantly increased in women (4.2 ± 0.5 vs 7.1 ± 1.3%, p = 0.026) but not in men (4.4 ± 0.9 vs 4.9 ± 0.8%, p = 0.588) in the trans-resveratrol group. There was no statistical difference between baseline and final values of brachial BP and also no changes in aortic SBP. Patients with higher low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol had better FMD response to trans-resveratrol than patients with lower LDL cholesterol (7.4 ± 1.2 vs 4.3 ± 1.0%, p = 0.004). Our study demonstrated that the acute supplementation of trans-resveratrol promoted an improvement in endothelial function, especially in women and those with higher LDL-cholesterol, despite no changes in BP. List of Abbreviation: Aix: augmentation index; AP: augmentation pressure; BP: blood pressure; BMI: body Mass Index; CVD: cardiovascular disease; FMD: flow-mediated dilation; FRS: Framingham Risk Score; HDL: high-density lipoprotein; LDL: low-density lipoprotein; NO: nitric oxide; SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences; ROS: reactive oxygen species; SBP: systolic blood pressure; TG: triglycerides.

Health benefits of resveratrol: Evidence from clinical studies

“…These results were in close concordance with an earlier trial conducted by the same group where a dose‐dependent effect of resveratrol on FMD was reported for the first time . Although the detailed mechanism of resveratrol's effect on FMD is not well defined, the vasodilatory effect of resveratrol is possibly delivered through an endothelial nitric oxide synthase‐3–mediated nitric oxide release in the endothelium …”

“…72 Although the detailed mechanism of resveratrol's effect on FMD is not well defined, the vasodilatory effect of resveratrol is possibly delivered through an endothelial nitric oxide synthase-3-mediated nitric oxide release in the endothelium. 73,74 An imbalance between insulin and glucagon can contribute to IGT and T2DM. 75 The glucagon hormone is produced by α cells in the pancreas and regulates the conversion of stored glycogen into glucose.…”

Fine wine or sour grapes? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of red wine polyphenols on vascular health

“…Thirty studies reported measures of blood pressure, of which two were acute supplement studies and 28 were chronic (see Tables 5 and 6). Marques et al [106] showed no significant effect in systolic or diastolic blood pressure following acute administration of grape extract (600 mg). Wightman et al [101] also found no significant change in blood pressure with resveratrol alone (250 mg) or with resveratrol combined with piperine (250 mg + 20 mg).…”

“…All remaining studies investigated the effects of red wine extract, grape extract, grape seed extract or some modification or combination of these. Five of the included studies investigated acute effects [101,106,110,122,132], whereas the majority looked at chronic supplementation, of which the most common length was 4 weeks (range = 2-52 weeks) [16-19, 27-31, 103-105, 109, 112-114, 116, 118, 119, 121, 124, 126-130, 134, 135]. To discern the potential differences between acute and chronic effects of RWP, these studies were separated for the purpose of analysis.…”

“…Peripheral vascular function measures using FMD were reported in 11 studies, of which three were acute interventions [102,106,110] and eight were chronic [16,18,27,31,103,104,128,133]. The full details for each study are presented in Table 6.…”