Plasma biochemical profiling of blood pressure and responses to exercise training

Hypertension is a chronic pathological condition which poses a major risk for Cardiovascular diseases and it is the most common modifiable risk factor for a range of heart and vascular disease such as coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure. African Americans have higher reported hypertension prevalence and lower control rates than other ethnic groups, hence the need to identify risk factors and biological pathways associated with the blood pressure regulation in this population. Approximately 30-50% of the variation in systolic blood pressure is attributable to genetic factors however common variants explain only a small percentage, thus a need remains for novel strategies to understand the etiology of hypertension. The aim of our research was to first examine the association between plasma metabolites and blood pressure in a population-based cohort of African Americans and then assess the impact of exercise on these BP associated metabolites. Using data from the Jackson Heart Study and the Heritage Family Study, we employed linear models adjusting for age and sex. We identified several metabolites linked to blood pressure, including fourteen associated with systolic and four with diastolic blood pressure; two metabolites were linked to both. Furthermore, some of the BP-associated metabolites changed with exercise while some did not. Palmitic acid, a saturated long-chain fatty acid containing 13-21 carbons, was positively associated with both SBP and DBP. High levels of palmitic acid can be linked to blood pressure due to its role in impairing endothelial function thereby reducing the availability of NO, a vasodilator. The beta values of palmitic acid for Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were 8.69049 and 4.331537, respectively, with each corresponding p-values of 1.12E-05 and 0.000417. Notably, palmitic acid levels did not change significantly with exercise. Identified metabolites may represent novel biomarkers of systemic BP and provide insights into the pathways associated with BP regulation. These results are consistent with our hypothesis that select circulating metabolites are associated with blood pressure although some of these metabolites changed differently with exercise. Future research is needed to determine the value of these metabolites in predicting risk of developing hypertension in this population. This project was supported by Department of Cardiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.