Probiotics found in dairy products may make it easier to recover from a heart attack. This was reported by the press service of the RNF.
The human digestive system is home to many bacteria that play an important role in the digestion of food. If the intestinal microflora is disturbed, for example, due to the use of antibiotics, human health can deteriorate significantly.
Specialists of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “National Center for Medical Research named after the VA”. Almazov and colleagues from other universities decided to investigate how the state of the intestinal microflora affects recovery after myocardial infarction, which part of the heart muscle dies due to impaired blood flow. Experiments were carried out on mice, the microflora of some of them was damaged by antibiotics, and in others, colonic inflammation was caused with the help of chemicals. Therefore, the barrier between intestinal contents and blood flow has been broken.
It turns out that such rats have a significantly higher risk of complications in an artificially induced heart attack. Some animals were given probiotics that restored their natural gut microflora.
The results of the experiment showed that taking the drug for 15 days reduced the extent of damage to the heart muscle caused by the heart attack. Also, the area of necrosis after a heart attack was 10% less in mice with impaired microflora treated with probiotics than in the control group. This was explained by a decrease in the level of proinflammatory cytokines in the blood, which can exacerbate the inflammatory response, interfere with the work of the heart muscle and contribute to the death of heart cells. In addition, the concentration of lipopolysaccharides in the blood decreased, which indicated the improvement and normalization of intestinal permeability and the composition of the microflora.
The study’s authors suggest that it is evolutionarily beneficial for symbiont bacteria to protect the host from heart attack by producing certain substances.