Nuts consumption and hypertension risks in children: a mediating role of circulating lipid metabolites

ABSTRACT

Background

Although nuts play an important role in preventing cardiovascular disease, the metabolic cues by which nuts regulate blood pressure have not been fully understood.Aims:We conducted a nested case–control study in a prospective cohort study of Southwest China children to explore the potential lipid metabolites related to the relationship between nut dietary and blood pressure.

Methods

Forty-three hypertension cases and 53 controls serum samples were obtained for lipidomic data analysis using a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry platform.

Results

We identified four lipid metabolites that are associated with nut intake by a generalized linear model and logistic regression analysis, including phosphatidylglycerol 43:6 [PG (43:6)], phosphatidylcholine 18:0/20:3 [PC (18:0/20:3)], and two phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) compounds [PE (P-16:0/20:4) and PE (P-22:0/18:2)]. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the levels of PG (43:6) and PE (P-16:0/20:4) were negatively associated with hypertension in children, which might be useful biomarkers for predicting childhood hypertension. Further mediation analysis revealed that PG (43:6) and PC (18:0/20:3) function as mediating variables between nut intake and blood pressure levels.

Conclusion

This study provides scientific evidence that nut consumption induces some beneficial changes in lipid metabolism, which may reduce the risk of hypertension in children.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuts
• hypertension
• children
• lipid metabolite
• diet

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge all of the children and the staffs of the six elementary schools in the two counties.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

QL: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing; YL, LC and YF: Investigation, Supervision; SQ, PZ and YF: Validation, Resources; c, QL and YL: Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing; XH: Writing – Review & Editing.

Data availability statement

Data are available from the corresponding author Xiaohua Liang (Email: [email protected], or [email protected]).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Program for Youth Innovation in Future Medicine from Chongqing Medical University (No.W0088), General Project of Clinical Medical Research from National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders (No. NCRCCHD-2022-GP-01), the Young and Middle-aged Medical Outstanding Expert Project of Chongqing Municipal Health Commission (No. 78), Major Health Project of Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau (No. CSTC2021jscx-gksb-N0001), National key research and development project (No.2017YFC0211705), Intelligent Medicine Project (No.ZHYX202109), the Basic Research Project of Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education of China in 2021 (GBRP-202106), the Natural Science Foundation of Youth Project (No.81502826). The funders had no role in the whole study research process, including study design, the data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.