Palmitoleic Acid Protects against Hypertension by Inhibiting NF-κB-Mediated Inflammation

The role of palmitoleic acid (POA) in hypertension or blood pressure remains uncertain. This study aims to investigate the epidemiological association between circulating POA and primary hypertension in humans, and subsequently evaluate the effects of exogenous POA on blood pressure and aortic remodeling in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs).

A case-control study of 349 hypertensive and 1396 normotensive children and adolescents is conducted, and found hypertensive cases show significant lower erythrocyte phospholipid POA than normotensive controls (p < 0.001). In conditional logistic regression model, participants in the top quartile of POA have a lower prevalence of primary hypertension than those in the bottom (multivariate-adjusted OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.25-0.89). In animal study, 24 SHRs are randomly assigned to n-3 PUFAs (500 mg kg^-1 ), POA (500 mg kg^-1 ), or vehicle (olive oil) for 8 weeks. At the end of intervention, as compared to SHRs treated with vehicle, SHRs treated with POA shows significantly decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP), improved aortic remodeling, and also decreased aortic expressions of NF-κB and its downstream proinflammatory cytokines.

Circulating POA is inversely associated with risk of primary hypertension, and exogenous POA supplementation can decrease SBP and improve aortic remodeling by inhibiting NF-κB-mediated inflammation.