著者

Masahiko Umei Hiroshi Akazawa Akiko Saga-Kamo Hiroki Yagi Qing Liu Ryo Matsuoka Hiroshi Kadowaki Akito Shindo Ayaka Nakashima Kosuke Yasuda Kengo Suzuki Issei Komuro

出版者

The Japanese Circulation Society

雑誌

Circulation Reports (ISSN:24340790)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.4, no.2, pp.83-91, 2022-02-10 (Released:2022-02-10)

参考文献数

40

被引用文献数

1

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Background:Patients with heart failure (HF) often experience gastrointestinal problems such as constipation, diarrhea, and disturbances to drug absorption. In HF, hypoperfusion and congestion cause structural and functional changes in the gut, which, in turn, lead to impaired cardiac function.Euglena gracilisZ (hereafter “Euglena”), calledMidorimushiin Japanese, is a microalga that is used as a food or nutritional supplement. It is unclear whether Euglena is beneficial for bowel habitus and cardiac function in subjects with HF.Methods and Results:We injected C57BL/6 male mice subcutaneously with isoproterenol (ISO) (20 mg/kg/day) for 7 days to examine bowel movement in HF. Euglena was orally administered to mice on anad libitum-feeding to a normal chow containing 2% dietary mixture. ISO induced a decrease in bowel movement and an increase in fecal retention in the cecum, as well as a decrease in left ventricular (LV) contraction. Euglena accelerated intestinal transit, relieved fecal retention, and prevented the alterations in gut pathology in ISO-treated mice. Euglena also suppressed ISO-induced decreases in LV contraction, although it had no significant effect on LV hypertrophy.Conclusions:The results suggested that oral administration of Euglena alleviated constipation and cardiac dysfunction in a mouse model of ISO-induced HF, and highlight the potential clinical benefit of Euglena in patients with HF in preventing constipation and contractile deterioration.