A plant-based diet attenuates hypertension-induced renal and hepatic stress: an exploratory study
6 affiliations
- 1Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta GA 30322 USA
- 2Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta GA 30322 USA
- 3Department of Nutrition, Georgia State University Atlanta GA USA
- 4Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University Atlanta GA USA
- 5Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipids and Center for Clinical and Molecular Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta GA 30322 USA
- 6Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection, Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Georgia State University Atlanta GA 30303 USA
Abstract
Hypertension drives progressive renal dysfunction and hepatic injury. In this secondary analysis, we investigated whether a plant-based diet (PBD) could prevent and/or reverse hypertension-induced renal and hepatic insult. Four-week-old female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) consumed a refined control diet or PBD comprising 28% fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, while normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats consumed the control diet. After 24 weeks, a subset of control-fed SHRs switched to PBD for 12 weeks. Despite sustained hypertension, exploratory analyses indicated that PBD may reduce serum urea during prevention (3.84 ± 1.12 vs. 3.03 ± 0.80 mmol L−1; P = 0.0263) and treatment (4.37 ± 1.80 vs. 3.11 ± 0.93 mmol L−1; P = 0.0248). Estimated glomerular filtration rate may also improve during treatment (1319 ± 277 vs. 1599 ± 432 µL min−1; P = 0.0488). However, this did not reach significance during the prevention phase (P = 0.0518). PBD prevented and reversed elevations in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT; prevention: 32.61 ± 3.23 vs. 22.50 ± 3.52 U L−1; treatment: 33.34 ± 2.87 vs. 24.48 ± 3.99 U L−1; both P < 0.0001). Further, PBD increased renal antioxidant enzyme expression and reduced hepatic tumor necrosis factor-α during prevention. Qualitatively, PBD may attenuate left kidney glomerular collagen accumulation. These findings warrant additional translational studies testing minimally refined PBDs, with potential pilot clinical studies as an adjunctive therapy in adults with hypertension.
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BibTeX
@article{najjar2026plantbased,
title = {{A plant-based diet attenuates hypertension-induced renal and hepatic stress: an exploratory study}},
author = {Rami S. Najjar and Zachery R. Jarrell and Cameron McCarthy and Wen Lu and Gahyun Lim and Young-Mi Go and Thomas R. Ziegler and Siming Wang and Rafaela G. Feresin and Richard D. Wainford and Andrew T. Gewirtz},
journal = {Food \& Function},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6fo04578b},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6fo04578b},
note = {CC BY-NC 3.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A plant-based diet attenuates hypertension-induced renal and hepatic stress: an exploratory study
AU - Rami S. Najjar
AU - Zachery R. Jarrell
AU - Cameron McCarthy
AU - Wen Lu
AU - Gahyun Lim
AU - Young-Mi Go
AU - Thomas R. Ziegler
AU - Siming Wang
AU - Rafaela G. Feresin
AU - Richard D. Wainford
AU - Andrew T. Gewirtz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Food & Function
DO - 10.1039/d6fo04578b
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6fo04578b
AB - Hypertension drives progressive renal dysfunction and hepatic injury. In this secondary analysis, we investigated whether a plant-based diet (PBD) could prevent and/or reverse hypertension-induced renal and hepatic insult. Four-week-old female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) consumed a refined control diet or PBD comprising 28% fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, while normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats consumed the control diet. After 24 weeks, a subset of control-fed SHRs switched to PBD for 12 weeks. Despite sustained hypertension, exploratory analyses indicated that PBD may reduce serum urea during prevention (3.84 ± 1.12 vs. 3.03 ± 0.80 mmol L−1; P = 0.0263) and treatment (4.37 ± 1.80 vs. 3.11 ± 0.93 mmol L−1; P = 0.0248). Estimated glomerular filtration rate may also improve during treatment (1319 ± 277 vs. 1599 ± 432 µL min−1; P = 0.0488). However, this did not reach significance during the prevention phase (P = 0.0518). PBD prevented and reversed elevations in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT; prevention: 32.61 ± 3.23 vs. 22.50 ± 3.52 U L−1; treatment: 33.34 ± 2.87 vs. 24.48 ± 3.99 U L−1; both P < 0.0001). Further, PBD increased renal antioxidant enzyme expression and reduced hepatic tumor necrosis factor-α during prevention. Qualitatively, PBD may attenuate left kidney glomerular collagen accumulation. These findings warrant additional translational studies testing minimally refined PBDs, with potential pilot clinical studies as an adjunctive therapy in adults with hypertension.
SN - 2042-6496
SN - 2042-650X
ER -