Dietary Nitrate and Cardiovascular Health

An expanding number of studies suggest a therapeutic role for nitrate and nitrite, most notably in treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease including ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury and hypertension. The nutritional aspects of these cardioprotective effects are particularly intriguing since nitrate and nitrite are abundant in our everyday diet. Whether increasing the circulating pool of nitric oxide and nitrite by dietary nitrate offers a novel mechanistic approach to regulate mobilization of circulating angiogenic cells and thus regenerative processes in cardiovascular medicine is not known. Thus, in the present study, we tested whether oral application of nitrate leads to an enhanced number of circulating angiogenic cells and whether this is associated with an improvement in endothelial function.