Fruit-juice Concentrate of Asian Plum Attenuates Vascular Remodeling Associated with Hypertension.

A fruit of the Prunus mume is a traditional and familiar food in Asian countries and is most often pickled or used to make wine and juice concentrate. Recently, Bainiku-ekisu, an infused juice concentrate of Prunus mume is attracting attention as a potential health promoting food. We previously reported that Bainiku-ekisu (BE) incubation attenuates the activation of growth-promoting signaling cascade induced by angiotensin II (Ang II) in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). However, whether BE has any effect on an animal model of cardiovascular disease remains unknown. Therefore, this study was designed to elucidate whether BE could attenuate cardiovascular pathology induced by Ang II infusion in mice, representing a model of human hypertension. 8- to 10-week-old male C57BL6 mice were randomly divided into four groups and infused with Ang II (1 µg/kg/min) for 2 weeks via osmotic mini-pump or sham-operated, and given 1% BE containing water (BEW) or normal water (control) for 2 weeks. Blood pressure was evaluated every other day by tail cuff measurement. Cardiac hypertrophy was assessed by heart-to-body weight ratio. After 2 weeks, mice were euthanized, and the aorta and heart collected. Extracted aortas and hearts were fixed and used for histological studies to evaluate vascular hypertrophy and perivascular fibrosis. Increase in heart-to-body weight ratios were unaltered by BEW. Aortic medial hypertrophy was observed in control mice (n=5) after 2 weeks of Ang II infusion, which was attenuated in BEW group (96 µm vs. 71 µm, respectively, p<0.01). Control mice with angiotensin II infusion showed cardiac perivascular fibrosis, which was attenuated in BEW group (fibrosis index score: 1.02 vs. 0.30, p<0.01). In addition, trend of hypertension attenuation by BEW was observed in Ang II-infused mice with BEW treatment. We also observed attenuation of DNA synthesis induced by AngII with BE incubation in cultured aortic fibroblasts. In conclusion, BEW prevented Ang II-induced cardiovascular remodeling such as vascular fibrosis. Potential cardiovascular health benefit to taking BE as a functional food should be further studied.