Fat not so bad? The role of ketone bodies and ketogenic diet in the treatment of endothelial dysfunction and hypertension.

Luciano Pirola, Oskar Ciesielski, Aneta Balcerczyk

Journal: Biochemical pharmacology 2022;206():115346

PMID: 36384215

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

The ketogenic diet (KD), a high-fat, low-carbohydrate dietary approach that is based on the induction of extensive ketone bodies (KB) metabolism, is recently receiving a lot of attention due to its application as effective intervention for multiple metabolic disorders including cardiovascular diseases. Despite its already established clinical use, especially in the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, GLUT1 deficiency syndromes and, in selected cases, obesity; the systemic impact of is not yet fully understood. Here, we discuss the evidence for and against the application of ketogenic diets, or ketone bodies precursors, in the etiology of hypertension and endothelial cells dysfunction. We attempt to identify the benefits and potential risks of chronic use of the ketogenic diet, also considering the molecular effects that KB exerts at multiple levels.

Address: INSERM Unit 1060, CarMeN Laboratory, Lyon-1 University, 165 Chemin du Grand Revoyet-BP12, F-69495 Pierre Bénite CEDEX, France.; Department of Molecular Biophysics, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Pomorska 141/143, 90-236 Lodz, Poland; The Bio-Med-Chem Doctoral School of the University of Lodz and Lodz Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Lodz, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Lodz, Poland.; Department of Molecular Biophysics, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Pomorska 141/143, 90-236 Lodz, Poland. Electronic address: [email protected].

DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2022.115346