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Hypertension is a major public health issue worldwide. The imbalance of gut microbiota is thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of hypertension. The authors conducted the systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify the relationship between gut microbiota and hypertension through conducting an electronic search in six databases. Our meta-analysis included 19 studies and the results showed that compared with healthy controls, Shannon significantly decreased in hypertension SMD = -0.13, 95%CI (-0.22, -0.04), p = .007; however, Simpson SMD = -0.01, 95%CI (-0.14, 0.12), p = .87, ACE SMD = 0.18, 95%CI (-0.06, 0.43), p = .14, and Chao1 SMD = 0.11, 95%CI (-0.01, 0.23), p = .08 did not differ significantly between hypertension and healthy controls. The F/B ratio significantly increased in hypertension SMD = 0.84, 95%CI (0.10, 1.58), p = .03. In addition, Shannon index was negatively correlated with hypertension r = -0.12, 95%CI (-0.19, -0.05), but had no significant correlation with SBP r = 0.10, 95%CI (-0.19, 0.37) and DBP r = -0.39, 95%CI (-0.73, 0.12). At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Firmicutes SMD = -0.01, 95%CI (-0.37, 0.34), p = .94, Bacteroidetes SMD = -0.15, 95%CI (-0.44, 0.14), p = .30, Proteobacteria SMD = 0.25, 95%CI (-0.01, 0.51), p = .06, and Actinobacteria SMD = 0.21, 95%CI (-0.11, 0.53), p = .21 did not differ significantly between hypertension and healthy controls. At the genus level, compared with healthy controls, the relative abundance of Faecalibacterium decreased significantly SMD = -0.16, 95%CI (-0.28, -0.04), p = .01, while the Streptococcus SMD = 0.20, 95%CI (0.08, 0.32), p = .001 and Enterococcus SMD = 0.20, 95%CI (0.08, 0.33), p = .002 significantly increased in hypertension. Available evidence suggests that hypertensive patients may have an imbalance of gut microbiota. However, it still needs further validation by large sample size studies of high quality.
Cai et al. (Wed,) studied this question.