Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2013, Article ID 809128, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/809128 Research Article Intake of Blueberry Fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum Affects the Gut Microbiota of L-NAME Treated Rats Jie Xu, 1 Irini Lazou Ahrén, 2 Olena Prykhodko, 3 Crister Olsson, 1 Siv Ahrné, 1 and Göran Molin 1 1 Department of Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition, Lund University, 222 41 Lund, Sweden 2 Probi AB, 223 70 Lund, Sweden 3 Department of Biology, Lund University, 223 62 Lund, Sweden Correspondence should be addressed to Jie Xu; jie.xu@appliednutrition.lth.se Received 10 December 2012; Revised 8 March 2013; Accepted 16 March 2013 Academic Editor: Shun-Wan Chan Copyright © 2013 Jie Xu et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Prebiotics, probiotics, or synbiotics can be used as means to regulate the microbiota to exert preventative or beneicial efects to the host. However, not much is known about the efect of the gut microbiota on hypertension which is a major risk factor of cardiovascular disease and also a symptom of the metabolic syndrome. he N G -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) induced hypertensive rats were used in order to test the efect of a synbiotic dietary supplement of Lactobacillus plantarum HEAL19 either together with fermented blueberry or with three phenolic compounds synthesized during fermentation. he experimental diets did not lower the blood pressure ater 4 weeks. However, the fermented blueberries together with live L. plantarum showed protective efect on liver cells indicated by suppressed increase of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) levels. he diversity of the caecal microbiota was neither afected by L-NAME nor the experimental diets. However, inhibition of the nitric oxide synthesis by L- NAME exerted a selection pressure that led to a shit in the bacterial composition. he mixture of fermented blueberries with the bacterial strain altered the caecal microbiota in diferent direction compared to L-NAME, while the three phenolic compounds together with the bacteria eliminated the selection pressure from the L-NAME. 1. Introduction In recent years, the view of the gut microbiota seen as a metabolic organ has prompted intensive studies on the link between the microbiota and the host health. he plausible roles of the altered microbiota in the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes have been discussed [1, 2]. However, few studies have looked at the relationship between microbiota and hypertension, the latter being an important symptom of the metabolic syndrome and a major risk factor of cardiovascular disease. Hypertension characterized as elevated systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure (SBP ≥ 140 mmHg, DBP ≥ 90 mmHg, resp.) is usually treated with antihypertensive agents, but life style modiication has also been recommended for both prevention and treatment [3, 4]. One approach to the dietary intervention is to use probiotics together with dietary ibers having prebiotic potential. However the yielding results have so far been inconsistent in improving the hypertensive conditions in both animal models and human trials. In a spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model, administration of milk fermented with Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. para- casei NTU 101 or Lactobacillus plantarum NTU 102 either as a single dose or for 8 weeks, both, signiicantly decreased SBP and DBP. he authors postulated that the underlying mechanism of the antihypertensive efect could be the result from two substances produced by the two bacteria strains, that is, angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) which is supposed to block the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II and a neurotransmitter -aminobutyric acid (GABA) [5]. In another study, supplementary tablets made from Lactobacillus helveticus CM4 in fermented milk powder were given to people with high-normal blood pressure (SBP = 130–139 mmHg, DBP = 85–89 mmHg) and mild hypertension (SBP = 140–159 mmHg, DBP = 90–99 mmHg) for 4 weeks. A signiicant decrease in DBP by 5 mmHg but