Impact of the Gut Microbiota on Cardiovascular Medicine

The metabolic capacity and the immunostimulatory functions of the gut microbiota are increasingly recognized as a key factor possibly playing a causative role in vascular physiology, cardiometabolic disease states and arterial thrombosis. In addition to emerging interventional and previous prospective clinical studies, which provided initial insights supporting a link between the gut microbiota and cardiometabolic disease states, murine models are widely used as a state-of-the-art technology. In particular, experimentation with germ-free mice and antibiotic depletion of the gut microbiota together with pre- and probiotic interventions will shed light on microbiota-host interactions and dysbiotic microbiomes that are linked to the development of cardiovascular diseases. Recent animal studies indicate that the intestinal microbiome is able to impact vascular inflammatory phenotypes, blood pressure regulation, thrombotic autoimmune syndromes, atherogenesis, ischemic stroke and arterial thrombosis. Although this field is in its infancy and we are just at the beginning of deciphering the influence that the microbiome exerts on the host’s vasculature, it is becoming evident that future cardiovascular research needs to focus on this important aspect of environmental medicine to grasp how the microbiome pleiotropically contributes to the development of cardiometabolic diseases and acute thrombosis.

This article collection of Frontiers in Medicine will comprise original research articles and review articles that thematically cover the emerging insights of how the microbiome influences vascular physiology and cardiovascular disease states, but will also give insights on microbiota-related biomarkers and how microbiome sequencing could be used as a tool for diagnosis or treatment-response prediction in the future. New concepts and current mechanistic insights are discussed, and the collection is a panel for publication of innovative research on microbiome-dependent developmental and pathological influences on the vasculature, including, but not limited to vascular inflammation, angiogenesis, metabolism, hematopoiesis, hemostasis, hypertension, thrombotic autoimmune disease, atherosclerosis, and thrombosis.

N.B. This Research Topic was co-developed with Giulia Pontarollo and Thijs E Van Mens - both junior Topic Editors managing this article collection but not involved in editing manuscripts submitted to this Research Topic.